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HISTORY OF CUBA; 



OR, 



$ta of a feteUer m i\t fojjirs. 



BEING A 



POLITICAL, HISTORICAL, AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 
ISLAND, FROM ITS FIRST DISCOYERY TO THE 
PRESENT TIME. 



BY 



MATURIN M. BALLOU. 



L'ile de Cuba settle pouebait valoie un boyaume. 

UAbbi Raynal. 




ILLUSTRATED 



BOSTON: 

PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY. 

NEW YORK: J. C. DERBY. 

PHILADELPHIA : LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & COMPANY. 
1854. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 

PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.i 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



.8*- 



A 






Stereotyped by 

HOBART & BOBBINS, 

New England Type and Stereotype Foundery, 



A-KpIS' 



T O 

FRANCIS A. DURIVAGE, ESQ., 

3s a small Eoken of EegartJ fot 

EXCELLENCE IN THOSE QUALITIES WHICH CONSTITUTE STERLING MANHOOD ; AS A 
TRUE AND WORTHY FRIEND 5 A3 A RIPE SCHOLAR, AND A GRACEFUL AUTHOR, 

IS 

CORDIALLY DEDICATED 

B Y 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE 



The remarkable degree of interest expressed on all sides, at the present 
time, relative to the island of Cuba, has led the author of the following 
pages to place together in this form a series of notes from his journal, 
kept during a brief residence upon the island. To these he has prefixed 
a historical glance at the political story of Cuba, that may not be unwor- 
thy of preservation. The fact that the subject-matter was penned in the 
hurry of observation upon the spot, and that it is thus a simple record of 
what would be most likely to engage and interest a stranger, is his excuse 
for the desultory character of the work. So critically is the island now 
situated, in a political point of view, that ere this book shall have passed 
through an edition, it may be no longer a dependency of Spain, or may 
have become the theatre of scenes to which its former convulsions shall 
bear no parallel. 

In preparing the volume for the press, the author has felt the want of 
books of reference, bearing a late date. Indeed, there are none ; and the 
only very modern records are those written in the desultory manner of 
hurried travellers. To the admirable work of the learned Ramon de la 
Sagra, — a monument of industry and intelligence, — the author of the 
following pages has been indebted for historical suggestions and data. For 
the privilege of consulting this, and other Spanish books and pamphlets, 
relative to the interests and history of the island, the author is indebted 
to the Hon. Edward Everett, who kindly placed them at his disposal. 
Where statistics were concerned, the several authorities have been carefully 
collated, and the most responsible given. The writer has preferred to 
offer the fresh memories of a pleasant trip to the tropics, to attempting a 
labored volume abounding in figures and statistics ; and trusts that this 
summer book of a summer clime may float lightly upon the sea of public 
favor. M. M. B. 

1* 



CONTENTS. 



/ 



CHAPTER I. 

The Island of Cuba — Early colonists — Island aborigines — First importation of slaves — 
Cortez and his followers — Aztecs — The law of races — Mexican aborigines — Valley of 
Mexico — Pizarro — The end of heroes — Retributive justice — Decadence of Spanish 
power — History of Cuba — The rovers of the gulf — Havana fortified — The tyrant 
Velasquez — Office of Captain-general — Loyalty of the Cubans — Power of the cap- 
tain-general — Cupidity of the government — The slave-trade — The British take Ha- 
vana — General Don Luis de las Casas — Don Francisco de Arranjo — Improvement, 
moral and physical, of Cuba, 9 

CHAPTER II. 

The constitution of 1812 — Revolution of La Granja — Political aspect of the island — 
Discontent among the Cubans — The example before them — Simon Bolivar, the Liber- 
ator—Revolutions of 1823 and 1826 — General Lorenzo and the constitution — The 
assumption of extraordinary power by Tacon — Civil war threatened — Tacon sustained 
by royal authority — Despair of the Cubans — Military rule — A foreign press estab- 
lished — Programme of the liberal party — General O'Donnell — The spoils — Influence 
of the climate, 25 

CHAPTER III. 

Armed intervention — Conspiracy of Cienfuegos and Trinidad — General Narciso Lopez 
— The author's views on the subject — Inducements to revolt — Enormous taxation — 
Scheme of the patriots — Lopez's first landing, in 1850 — Taking of Cardinas — Return 
of the invaders — Effect upon the Cuban authorities — Roncali recalled — New captain- 
general — Lopez's second expedition — Condition of the Invaders — Vicissitudes — Col. 
Crittenden — Battle of Las Pozas — Superiority of courage — Battle of Las Frias — 
Death of Gen. Enna — The fearful finale of the expedition, 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

Present condition of Cuba — Secret treaty with France and England — British plan for 
the Africanization of the island — Sale of Cuba — Measures of General Pezuela — 
Registration of slaves — Intermarriage of blacks and whites — Contradictory procla- 
mations — Spanish duplicity — A Creole's view of the crisis and the prospect, ... 54 



CONTENTS. VII 



CHAPTER V. 

Geographical position of the island — Its size — The climate — Advice to invalids — Glance 
at the principal cities — Matanzas — Puerto Principe — Santiago de Cuba— Trinidad — 
The writer's first view of Havana — Importance of the capital — Its literary institu- 
tions — Restriction on Cuban youths and education — Glance at the city streets — Style 
of architecture — Domestic arrangements of town-houses — A word about Cuban ladies 
— Small feet — Grace of manners and general characteristics, 66 

CHAPTER VI. 

Conrrast between Protestant and Catholic communities — Catholic churches — Sabbath 
scenes in Havana — Devotion of the common people — The Plaza de Armas — City 
squares — The poor man's opera — Influence of music — La Dominica — The Tacon 
Paseo — The Tacon Theatre — The Cathedral — Tomb of Columbus over the altar — 
Story of the great Genoese pilot — His death — Removal of remains — The former great 
wealth of the church in Cuba — Influence of the priests, 80 

CHAPTER VII. i 

Nudity of children and slaves — The street of the merchants — The currency of Cuba — 
The Spanish army in the island — Enrolment of blacks — Courage of Spanish troops — 
Treatment by the government — The garote — A military execution — The market-men 
and then* wares — The milk-man and his mode of supply — Glass windows — Curtains 
for doors — The Campo Santo, or burial-place of Havana — Treatment of the dead — 
The prison — The fish-market of the capital, 95 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The story of Marti, the smuggler, 108 

CHAPTER IX. 

The lottery at Havana — Hospitality of the Spaniards — Flattery — Cuban ladies — Cas- 
tilian, Parisian and American politeness — The bonnet in Cuba — Ladies' dresses — 
The fan — Jewelry and its wear — Culture of flowers — Reflections — A most peculiar 
narcotic — Cost of living on the island — Guiness — The cock-pit — Training of the 
birds — The garden of the world — Birds of the tropics — Condition of agriculture — 
Night-time — The Southern Cross — Natural resources of Cuba — Her wrongs and 
oppressions, 116 

CHAPTER X. 

The volante and its belongings — The ancient town of Regla — The arena for the bull- 
fights at Havana — A bull-fight as witnessed by the author at Regla — A national pas- 
sion with the Spanish people — Compared with old Roman sports — Famous bull-fight- 
ers — Personal description of Cuban ladies — Description of the men — Romance and 
the tropics — The nobility of Cuba — Sugar noblemen — The grades of society — The 
yeomanry of the island — Their social position — What they might be — Love of gam- 
bling, 131 



VIII CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A sugar plantation — Americans employed — Slaves on the plantations — A coffee plan- 
tation — Culture of coffee, sugar and tobacco — Statistics of agriculture — The cucullos, 
or Cuban fire-fly — Novel ornaments worn by the ladies — The Cuban mode of har- 
nessing oxen — The montero and his horse — Curious style of out-door painting — Petty 
annoyances to travellers — Jealousy of the authorities — Japan-like watchfulness — 
Questionable policy — Political condition of Cuba, 145 

CHAPTER XII. 

Tacon's summary mode of justice, 161 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Consumption of tobacco — The universal cigar — Lady smokers — The fruits of Cuba — 
Flour a prohibited article — The royal palm — West Indian trees — Snakes, animals, etc. 

— The Cuban blood-hound — Mode of training him — Remarkable instinct — Importa- 
tion of slaves — Their cost — Various African tribes — Superstitious belief — Tattooing 

— Health of the negroes — Slave laws of the island — Food of the negroes — Spanish 
law of emancipation — General treatment of the slaves, 171 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Pecuniary value of the slave-trade to Havana — The slave clippers — First introduction 
of slaves into Cuba — Monopoly of the traffic by England — Spain's disregard of treaty 
stipulations — Spanish perfidy — Present condition of Spain — Her decadence — Influ- 
ence upon her American possessions — Slaves upon the plantations — The soil of Cuba 

— Mineral wealth of the island — The present condition of the people — The influences 
of American progress — What Cuba might be, 185 

CHAPTER XV. 

Area of Cuba — Extent of cultivated and uncultivated lands — Population — Proportion 
l>et\veen the sexes — Ratio of legitimate to illegitimate births — Ratio between births 
and deaths — Agricultural statistics — Commerce and commercial regulations — Custom- 
house and port charges — Exports and imports — Trade with the United States — Uni- 
versities and schools — Education — Charitable institutions — Railroads Temper- 
ature, 201 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Retrospective thoughts — The bright side and dark side of the picture — Cuban institu- 
tions contrasted with our own — Political sentiments of the Creoles — War footing — 
Loyalty of the colony — Native men of genius — The Cubans not willing slaves — Our 
own revolution — Apostles of rebellion — Moral of the Lopez expedition — Jealousy of 
Spain — Honorable position of our government — Spanish aggressions on our flag — 
Purchase of the island — Distinguished conservative opinion — The end, 214 



THE 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 



CHAPTER I 



The Island of Cuba — Early colonists — Island aborigines — First import- 
ation of slaves — Cortez and his followers — Aztecs — The law of races 
— Mexican aborigines — Valley of Mexico — Pizarro — The end of 
heroes — Ketributive justice — Decadence of Spanish power — History 
of Cuba — The rovers of the Gulf — Havana fortified — The tyrant Ve- 
lasquez — Office of captain-general — Loyalty of the Cubans — Power 
of the captain-general — Cupidity of the government — The slave- 
trade — The British take Havana — General Don Luis de las Casas — 
Don Francisco de Arranjo — Improvement, moral and physical, of Cuba. 

The island of Cuba, one of the earliest discoveries of 
the great admiral, has been known to Europe since 1492, 
and has borne, successively, the names of Juana,* Fernan- 
dina, Santiago and Ave Maria, having found refuge at last 
in the aboriginal appellation. Soon after its .discovery by 
Columbus, it was colonized by Spaniards from St. Domingo, 
but was considered mainly in the light of a military depot, 
by the home government, in its famous operations at that 

* In honor of Prince John, son of Ferdinand and Isabella. Changed to 
Fernandina on the death of Ferdinand ; afterwards called Ave Maria, 
in honor of the Holy Virgin. Cuba is the Indian name. 



10 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

period in Mexico. The fact that it was destined to prove 
the richest jewel in the Castilian crown, and a mine of 
wealth to the Spanish treasury, was not dreamed of at this 
stage of its history. Even the enthusiastic followers of Cor- 
tez, who sought that fabulous El Dorado of the New World, 
had no golden promise to hold forth for this gem of the 
Caribbean Sea. # 

The Spanish colonists from St. Domingo found the island 
inhabited by a most peculiar native race, hospitable, inof- 
fensive, timid, fond of the dance and the rude music of 
their own people, yet naturally indolent and lazy, from the 
character of the climate they inhabited. They had some 
definite idea of God and heaven ; and were governed by 
patriarchs, or kings, whose word was law, and whose age 
gave them precedence. They had few weapons of offence 
or defence, and knew not the use of the bow and arrow. 
Of course, they were at once subjected by the new comers, 
who reduced them to a state of slavery ; and, proving hard 
taskmasters, the poor, over-worked natives died in scores, 
until they had nearly disappeared, when the home govern- 
ment granted permission to import a cargo of negroes from 
the coast of Africa to labor upon the ground, and to seek 
for gold, which was thought to exist in the river-courses.* 



I * " Thus," exclaims the pious Arrati, " began that gathering of an in- 
finite number of gentiles to the bosom of our holy religion, who would 
'otherwise have perished in the darkness of paganism." Spain has liberal 
laws relative to the religious instruction of the slaves ; but they are no 
better than a dead letter. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 11 

Thus early commenced the slave-trade of Cuba, a subject 
to which we shall have occasion more fully to refer. 

Cuba became the head-quarters of the Spanish power in 
the west, forming the point of departure for those military 
expeditions which, though inconsiderable in numbers, were 
so formidable in the energy of the leaders, and in the arms, 
discipline, courage, ferocity, fanaticism and avarice, of their 
followers, that they were amply adequate to carry out the 
vast schemes of conquest for which they were designed. 
It was hence that Cortez marched to the conquest of Mexico, 
— a gigantic undertaking — one a slight glance at which 
will recall to the reader the period of history to which we 
would direct his attention. Landing upon the continent, 
with a little band, scarcely more than half the complement 
of a modern regiment, he prepared to traverse an unknown 
country, thronged by savage tribes, with whose character, 
habits and means of defence, he was wholly unacquainted. 
This romantic adventure, worthy of the palmiest days of 
chivalry, was crowned with success, though checkered with 
various fortune, and stained with bloody episodes, that 
prove how the threads of courage and ferocity are insep- 
arably blended in the woof and warp of Spanish character. 
It must be remembered, however, that the spirit of the 
age was harsh, relentless and intolerant; and, that if the 
Aztecs, idolaters and sacrificers of human victims, found no 
mercy at the hands of the fierce Catholics whom Cortez 



12 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

commanded, neither did the Indians of our own section of 
the continent fare much better at the hands of men profess- 
ing a purer faith, and coming to these shores, not as war- 
riors, with the avowed purpose of conquest, but themselves 
persecuted fugitives. 

As the first words that greeted the ears of the Plymouth 
colonists were " Welcome, Englishmen ! " uttered by a poor 
native, who had learned them from the fishermen off the 
northern coast, so were the Spaniards at first kindly wel- 
comed by the aborigines they encountered in the New 
World.j^ Yet, in the north-east and south-west the result 
was the same : it mattered little whether the stranger was 
Roman Catholic or Protestant ; whether he came clad in 
steel, or robed in the garments of peace ; whether he spoke 
the harsh English, the soft French, or the rich Castilian 
tongue. The inexorable laws which govern races were rig- 
idly enforced ; the same drama was everywhere enacted, the 
white race enjoying a speedy triumph. There were episod- 
ical struggles, fierce ahd furious, but unavailing; here 
Guatimozin, there Philip of Pokanoket — here a battle, there 
a massacre: — v 

The Spanish general encountered a people who had at- 
tained a far higher point of art and civilization than their 
red brethren of the north-east part of the continent. Vast 
pyramids, imposing sculptures, curious arms, fanciful gar- 
ments, various kinds of manufactures, the relics of which 
still strangely interest the student of the past, filled the in- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 13 

vaders with surprise. There was much that was curious 
and startling in their mythology, and the capital of the 
Mexican empire presented a singular and fascinating spec- 
tacle to the eyes of Cortez. The rocky amphitheatre in 
the midst of which it was built still remains unchanged, 
but the vast lake which surrounded it, traversed by cause- 
ways, and covered with floating gardens, laden with flowers 
and perfume, is gone. The star of the Aztec dynasty set 
in blood. In vain did the inhabitants of the conquered city, 
roused to madness by the cruelty and extortion of the vic- 
tors, expel them from their midst. Cortez refused to flee 
further than the shore ; the light of his burning galleys 
rekindled the desperate valor of his followers, and Mexico 
fell, as a few years after did Peru under the perfidy and 
sword of Pizarro, thus completing the scheme of conquest, 
and giving Spain a colonial empire more splendid than that 
of any other power in Christendom. 

Of the agents^ in this vast scheme of territorial aggran- 
dizement, we see Cortez dying in obscurity, and Pizarro 
assassinated in his palace, while retributive justice has over- 
taken the monarchy at whose behests the richest portions of 
the western continent were violently wrested from their 
native possessors. If " the wild and warlike, the indolent 
and the semi-civilized, the bloody Aztec, the inoffensive 
Peruvian, the fierce Araucanian, all fared alike" at the 
hands of Spain, it must be confessed that their wrongs have 
been signally avenged. " The horrid atrocities practised at 
2 



[[ HISTORY OF CUBA. 

home and abroad," says Edward Everett, "not only in the 
Netherlands, but in every city of the northern country, 
cried to Heaven for vengeance upon Spain ; nor could she 
escape it. She intrenched herself behind the eternal 
Cordilleras ; she took to herself the wings of the morning, 
and dwelt in the uttermost parts of the sea ; but even there 
the arm of retribution laid hold of her, and the wrongs 
of both hemispheres were avenged by her degeneracy and 
fall." 

So rapid a fall is almost without a parallel in the history 
of the world. Less than three centuries from the time 
when she stood without a rival in the extent and wealth of 
her colonial possessions, she beheld herself stripped, one by 
one, of the rich exotic jewels of her crown. Her vice-regal 
coronet was torn from her grasp. Mexico revolted; the 
South American provinces threw off her yoke ; and now, 
though she still clutches with febrile grasp the brightest gem 
of her transatlantic possessions, the island of Cuba, yet it 
is evident that she cannot long retain its ownership. The 
" ever-faithful " island has exhibited unmistakable symptoms 
of infidelity, its demonstrations of loyalty being confined to 
the government officials and the hireling soldiery. The 
time will surely come when the last act of the great drama 
of historical retribution will be consummated, and when, in 
spite of the threatening batteries of the Moro and the Punta, 
and the bayonets of Spanish legions, siempre Jiel will no 
longer be the motto of the Queen of the Antilles. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 15 

The history of Cuba is deficient in events of a stirring 
character, and yet not devoid of interest. Columbus found 
it inhabited, as we have already remarked, by a race whose 
manners and character assimilated with the mild climate of 
this terrestrial paradise. Although the Spanish conquerors 
have left us but few details respecting these aborigines, yet 
we know with certainty, from the narratives of the great 
discoverer and his followers, that they were docile and 
generous, but, at the same time, inclined to ease ; that they 
were well-formed, grave, and far from possessing the vivac- 
ity of the natives of the south of Europe. They ex- 
pressed themselves with a certain modesty and respect, and 
were hospitable to the last degree. Their labor was lim- 
ited to the light work necessary to provide for the wants 
of life, while the bounteous climate of the tropics spared 
the necessity of clothing. They preferred hunting and fish- 
ing to agriculture; and beans and maize, with the fruits 
that nature gave them in abundance, rendered their diet 
at once simple and nutritious. They possessed no quad- 
rupeds of any description, except a race of voiceless dogs, 
of whose existence we have no proof but the assertion of 
the discoverers. 

The island was politically divided into nine provinces, 
namely, Baracoa, Bayaguitizi, Macaca, Bayamo, Camaguey, 
Jagua, Cueyba, Habana and Haniguanica. At the head of 
each was a governor, or king, of whose laws we have no 
record, or even tradition. An unbroken peace reigned 



16 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

among them, nor did they turn their hands against any other 
people. Their priests, called Behiques, were fanatics, 
superstitious to the last degree, and kept the people in fear 
by gross extravagances. They were not cannibals, nor did 
they employ human sacrifices, and are represented as dis- 
tinguished by a readiness to receive the Gospel. 

The capital of the island was Baracoa,* erected into a 
city and bishopric in 1518, But both were transferred to 
Santiago de Cuba in 1522. In the year 1538, the city of 
Havana was surprised by a French corsair and reduced to 
ashes. The French and English buccaneers of the West 
Indies, whose hatred the Spaniards early incurred, were for 
a long time their terror and their scourge. Enamored of 
the wild life they led, unshackled by any laws but the rude 
regulations they themselves adopted, unrefined by inter- 
course with the gentler sex, consumed by a thirst for adven- 
ture, and\ brave to ferocity, these fierce rovers, for many 
years, were the actual masters of the gulf. They feared 
no enemy, and spared none; their vessels, constantly on 
the watch for booty, were ever ready, on the appearance of 
a galleon, to swoop down like an eagle on its prey. The 
romance of the sea owes some of its most thrilling chapters 
to the fearful exploits of these buccaneers. Their coup de 
main on Havana attracted the attention of De Soto, the 
governor of the island, to the position and advantages of the 

* Here Leo X. erected the first cathedral in Cuba. Baracoa is situated 
on the north coast, at the eastern extremity of the island, and contains 
some three thousand inhabitants, mixed population. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 17 

port at which the Spanish vessels bound for the peninsula 
with the riches of New Mexico were accustomed to touch, 
and he accordingly commenced to fortify it. It increased 
in population by degrees, and became the habitual guberna- 
torial residence, until the home government made it the 
capital of the island in 1589, on the appointment of the first 
Captain-general, Juan de Tejada. 

The native population soon dwindled away under the 
severe sway of the Spaniards, who imposed upon them 
tasks repugnant to their habits, and too great for their 
strength. 

Velasquez, one of the earliest governors of the island, 
appears to have been an energetic and efficient magistrate, 
and to have administered affairs with vigor and intelligence ; 
but his harsh treatment of the aborigines will ever remain 
a stain upon his memory. A native chief, whose only crime 
was that of taking up arms in defence of the integrity of 
his little territory, fell into the hands of Velasquez, and was 
burned alive, as a punishment for his patriotism.* It is no 
wander that under such treatment the native population 
disappeared so rapidly that the Spaniards were forced to 
supply their places by laborers of hardier character. ^ 

We have seen that the office of captain-general was es- 
tablished in 1589, and, with a succession of incumbents, the 

*The words of this unfortunate chief (Hatuey), extorted by the tor- 
ments he suffered, were, " Prefiero el infierno al cielo sPen cielo ha Es- 
panoles." (I prefer hell to heaven, if there are Spaniards in heaven.) 

2* 



I 18 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

office has been maintained until the present day, retaining 
the same functions and the same extraordinary powers. 
The object of the Spanish government is, and ever has 
been, to derive as much revenue as possible from the island ; 
and the exactions imposed upon the inhabitants have in- 
creased in proportion as other colonies of Spain, in the 
■western world, have revolted and obtained their independ- 
ence. The imposition of heavier burthens than those im- 
posed upon any other people in the world has been the re- 
ward of the proverbial loyalty of the Cubans ; while the 
epithet of " ever-faithful," bestowed by the crown, has been 
their only recompense for their steady devotion to the throne. 
But for many years this lauded loyalty has existed only in 
appearance, while discontent has been fermenting deeply 
beneath the surface. > 

The Cubans owe alf the blessings they enjoy to Providence 
alone (so to speak), while the evils which they suffer are 
directly referable to the oppression of the home government. 
Nothing short of a military despotism could maintain the 
connection of such an island with a mother country more 
than three thousand miles distant ; and accordingly we find 
the captain-general of Cuba invested with unlimited power. 
He is, in fact, a viceroy appointed by the crown of Spain, 
and accountable only to the reigning sovereign for his ad- 
ministration of the colony. His rule is absolute : he has 
the power of life and death and liberty in his hands. He 
can, by his arbitrary will, send into exile any person what- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 19 

ever, be his name or rank what it may, whose residence in 
the island he considers prejudicial to the royal interest, even 
if he has committed no overt act. He can suspend the 
operation of the laws and ordinances, if he sees fit to do so ; 
can destroy or confiscate property; and, in short, the 
island may be said to be perpetually in a state of siege. ^ 
Such is the infirmity of human nature that few individ- 
uals can be trusted with despotic power without abusing it; 
and accordingly we find very few captain-generals whose 
administration will bear the test of rigid examination. Few 
men who have governed Cuba have consulted the true in- 
terests of the Creoles ; in fact, they are not appointed for 
that purpose, but merely to look after the crown revenue. 
An office of such magnitude is, of course, a brilliant prize, 
for which the grandees of Spain are constantly struggling ; 
and the means by which an aspirant is most likely to secure 
the appointment presupposes a character of an inferior or- 
der. The captain-general knows that he cannot reckon on 
a long term of office, and hence he takes no pains to study 
the interests or gain the good-will of the Cubans. He 
has a two-fold object in view, — to keep the revenue well 
up to the mark, and to enrich himself as speedily as possi- 
ble. Hence, the solemn obligations entered into by Spain 
with the other powers for the suppression of the African 
slave-trade are a dead letter ; for, with very few exceptions, 
the captains-general of Cuba have connived at the illegal 
importation of slaves, receiving for their complaisance a 



/ 



20 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

large percentage on the value of each one landed on the 
island ; for, though the slavers do not discharge their living 
freights at the more frequented ports, still their arrival is a 
matter of public notoriety, and it is impossible that, with 
the present system of espionage, the authorities can be 
ignorant of such an event. Nor can we imagine that the 
home government is less well-informed upon the subject, 
though they assume a politic ignorance of the violation of 
the law. Believing that the importation of slaves is essen- 
tial to the maintenance of the present high revenue, Spain 
illustrates the rule that there are none so blind as those who 
do not wish to see. It is only the cheapness of labor, re- 
sulting from the importation of slaves, that enables the 
planters to pour into the government treasury from twenty 
to twenty-four millions of dollars annually. Of this we 
may speak more fully hereafter. 

In 1760, the invasion and conquest of the island by the 
British forms one of the most remarkable epochs in its 
history. This event excited the fears of Spain, and directed 
the attention of the government to its importance in a polit- 
ical point of view. On its restoration, at the treaty of peace 
concluded between the two governments in the following year, 
Spain seriously commenced the work of fortifying the Ha- 
vana, and defending and garrisoning the island generally. 

The elements of prosperity contained within the limits of 
this peerless island required only a patriotic and enlightened 
administration for their development ; and the germ of its 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 21 

civilization was stimulated by the appointment of General 
Don Luis de las Casas to the post of captain-general. Dur- 
ing the administration of this celebrated man, whose memory 
is cherished with fond respect by the Cubans, The Patriotic 
Society of Havana was formed, with the noble idea of dif- 
fusing education throughout the island, and introducing a 
taste for classical literature, through his instrumentality, 
while the press was also established in the capital, by the 
publication of the Papel Periodico. 

In the first third of the present century, the intendente, 
Don Alejandro Ramirez, labored to regulate the revenues 
and economical condition of the country, and called the at- 
tention of the government to the improvement of the white 
population. But the most important concession obtained of 
the metropolitan government, the freedom of commerce, was 
due to the patriotic exertions of Don Erancisco de Arranjo, 
the most illustrious name in Cuban annals, "one," says the 
Countess Merlin, " who may be quoted as a model of the 
humane and peaceful virtues," and "who was," says Las 
Casas, "a jewel of priceless value to the glory of the na- 
tion, a protector for Cuba, and an accomplished statesman 
for the monarchy." Even the briefest historical sketch 
(and this record pretends to no more) would be incomplete 
without particular mention of this excellent man. 

He was born at Havana, May 22d, 1765. Left an or- 
phan at a very early age, he managed the family estate, 
while a mere boy, with a discretion and judgment which 



22 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

would have done honor to a man of mature age. Turning 
his attention to the study of the law, he was admitted to 
practice in the mother country, where for a considerable 
period he acted as the agent for the municipality of Havana, 
and, being thoroughly acquainted with the capabilities of the 
island, and the condition and wants of his countrymen, he 
succeeded in procuring the amelioration of some of the most 
flagrant abuses of the colonial system. By his exertions, the 
staple productions of the island were so much increased that 
the revenue, in place of falling short of the expenses of the 
government, as his enemies had predicted, soon yielded a large 
surplus. He early raised his voice against the iniquitous 
slave-trade, and suggested the introduction of white laborers, 
though he perceived that the abolition of slavery was im- 
practicable. It was owing to his exertions that the duty on 
coffee, spirits and cotton, was remitted for a period of ten 
years, and that machinery was allowed to be imported free 
of duty to the island. 

The Junta de Fomento (society for improvement) and 
the Chamber of Commerce were the fruits of his indefatiga- 
ble efforts. Of the latter institution he was for a long time 
the Syndic, refusing to receive the perquisites attached to 
the office, as he did the salaries of the same and other offices 
that he filled during his useful life. While secretary of the 
Chamber, he distinguished himself by his bold opposition to 
the schemes of the infamous Godoy (the Prince of Peace), 
the minion of the Queen of Spain, who, claiming to be pro- 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 23 

tector of the Chamber of Commerce, demanded the receipts 
of the custom-house at Havana. He not only defeated the 
plans of Godoy. but procured the relinquishment of the 
royal monopoly of tobacco. His patriotic services were ap- 
preciated by the court at Madrid, although at times he was 
the inflexible opponent of its schemes. The cross of the 
order of Charles III. showed the esteem in which he was 
held by that monarch. Yet, with a modesty which did him 
honor, he declined to accept a title of nobility which was 
afterwards offered to him. In 1813, when, by the adoption 
of the constitution of 1812, Cuba became entitled to repre- 
sentation in the general Cortes, he visited Madrid as a dep- 
uty, and there achieved the crowning glory of his useful 
life, — the opening of the ports of Cuba to foreign trade. 
In 1817 he returned to his native island with the rank of 
Counsellor of State, Financial Intendente of Cuba, and 
wearing the grand cross of the order of Isabella. He died in 
1837, at the age of seventy-two, after a long and eminently 
useful life, bequeathing large sums for various public purposes 
and charitable objects in the island. Such a man is an 
honor to any age or nation, and the Cubans do well to cher- 
ish his memory, which, indeed, they seem resolved, by fre- 
quent and kindly mention, to keep ever green. 

Fostered by such men, the resources of Cuba, both phys- 
ical and intellectual, received an ample and rapid develop- 
ment. The youth of the island profited by the means of 
instruction now liberally placed at their disposal; the 



24 HISTORY OP CUBA. 

sciences and belles-lettres were assiduously cultivated ; agri- 
culture and internal industry were materially improved, and 
an ambitious spirit evoked, which subsequent periods of 
tyranny and misrule have not been able, with all their bane- 
ful influences, entirely to erase. 

The visitor from abroad is sure to hear the people refer 
to this " golden period," as they call it, of their history, 
the influence of which, so far from passing away, appears 
to grow and daily increase with them. It raised in their 
bosoms one spirit and trust which they sadly needed, — 
that of self-reliance, — and showed them of what they were 
capable, under liberal laws and judicious government. 



CHAPTER II. 

The constitution of .1812 — Revolution of La Granja — Political aspect 
of the island — Discontent among the Cubans — The example before 
them — Simon Bolivar, the Liberator — Revolutions of 1823 and 1826 
— General Lorenzo and the constitution — The assumption of extraordi- 
nary power by Tacon — Civil war threatened — Tacon sustained by 
royal authority — Despair of the Cubans — Military rule — A foreign 
press established — Programme of the liberal party — General O'Don- 
nell — The spoils — Influence of the climate. 

When the French invasion of Spain in 1808 produced 
the constitution of 1812, Cuba was considered entitled to 
enjoy its benefits, and the year 1820 taught the Cubans the 
advantage to be derived by a people from institutions based 
on the principle of popular intervention in public affairs. 
The condition of the nation on the death of Ferdinand VII. 
obliged Queen Christina to rely on the liberal party for a 
triumph over the pretensions of the Infante Don Carlos to 
the crown, and to assure the throne of Donna Isabella II., 
and the E statute* Real (royal statute) was proclaimed 
in Spain and Cuba. The Cubans looked forward, as in 
1812 and 1820, to a representation in the national congress, 
and the enjoyment of the same liberty conceded to the Pe- 
ninsula. An institution was then established in Havana, 
3 



26 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

with branches in the island, called the Royal Society for 
Improvement, already alluded to in our brief notice of Don 
Francisco Arranjo. The object of this society was to aid 
and protect the progress of agriculture and commerce ; and 
it achieved a vast amount of good. At the same time, the 
press, within the narrow limits conceded to it, discussed with 
intelligence and zeal the interests of the country, and dif- 
fused a knowledge of them. 

In 1836 the revolution known as that of La Granja, pro- 
voked and sustained by the progressionists against the mod- 
erate party, destroyed the " Royal Statute," and proclaimed 
the old constitution of 1812. The queen-mother, then 
Regent of Spain, convoked the constituent Cortes, and sum- 
moned deputies from Cuba. 

Up to this time, various political events, occurring within 
a brief period, had disturbed but slightly and accidentally 
the tranquillity of this rich province of Spain. The Cubans, 
although sensible of the progress of public intelligence and 
wealth, under the protection of a few enlightened governors, 
and through the influence of distinguished and patriotic 
individuals, were aware that these advances were slow, par- 
tial and limited, that there was no regular system, and that 
the public interests, confided to officials intrusted with un- 
limited power, and liable to the abuses inseparable from 
absolutism, frequently languished, or were betrayed by a 
cupidity which impelled despotic authorities to enrich them- 
selves in every possible way at the expense of popular suf- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 27 

fering. Added to these sources of discontent was the 
powerful influence exerted over the intelligent portion of 
the people by the portentous spectacle of the rapidly-in- 
creasing greatness of the United States, where a portion of 
the Cuban youths were wont to receive their education, and 
to learn the value of a national independence based on dem- 
ocratic principles, principles which they were apt freely to -f^ 
discuss after returning to the island. 

There also were the examples of Mexico and Spanish 
South America, which had recently conquered with their 
blood their glorious emancipation from monarchy. Liberal 
ideas were largely diffused by Cubans who had travelled in 
Europe, and there imbibed the spirit of modern civilization. 
But, with a fatuity and obstinacy which has always charac- 
terized her, the mother country resolved to ignore these 
causes of discontent, and, instead of yielding to the popular 
current, and introducing a liberal and mild system of gov- 
ernment, drew the reins yet tighter, and even curtailed 
many of the privileges formerly accorded to the Cubans. 
It is a blind persistence in the fated principle of despotic 
domination which has relaxed the moral and political bonds 
uniting the two countries, instilled gall into the hearts of 
the governed, and substituted the dangerous obedience of 
terror for the secure loyalty of love. This severity of the 
home government has given rise to several attempts to throw ^ 
off the Spanish yoke. 

The first occurred in 1823, when the Liberator, Simon 



28 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Bolivar, offered to aid the disaffected party by throwing an 
invading force into the island. The conspiracy then formed, 
by the aid of the proffered expedition, for which men were 
regularly enlisted and enrolled, would undoubtedly have 
ended in the triumph of the insurrection, had it not been 
discovered and suppressed prematurely, and had not the 
governments of the United States, Great Britain and 
^ France, intervened in favor of Spain. In 1826 some Cu- 
ban emigrants, residing in Caraccas, attempted a new expe- 
dition, which failed, and caused the imprisonment and execu- 
tion of two patriotic young men, Don Francisco de Agiiero, 
y Velazco, and Don Bernabe Sanchez, sent to raise the de- 
partment of the interior. In 1828 there was a yet more 
formidable conspiracy, known as El Aguila Negra (the 
black eagle). The efforts of the patriots proved unavail- 
ing, foiled by the preparation and power of the government, 
which seems to be apprised by spies of every intended 
movement for the cause of liberty in Cuba. 

We have alluded to the revolution of La Granja, in 
Spain, and we have now briefly to consider its effects on the 
island of Cuba, then under the sway of General Don Mi- 
guel Tacon. We shall have occasion to refer more than 
once, in the course of our records of the island, to the ad- 
ministration of Tacon ; for he made his mark upon Cuba, 
and, though he governed it with an iron hand and a stern 
will, as we shall see. yet he did much to improve its physi- 
cal condition, even as Louis Napoleon, despot though he be, 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 29 

has already vastly beautified and improved the sanitary 
condition of the city of Paris. 

The first place on the island which received intelligence 
of the revolution of La Granja, and the oath to the consti- 
tution of 1812 by the Queen-Regent of Spain, was Santi- 
ago de Cuba, the capital of the eastern department. It was 
then commanded by General Lorenzo, who immediately 
assembled the authorities, corporations and functionaries, in 
pursuance of the example of his predecessors, — who, without 
waiting for the orders of the higher authority of the island, 
had, under similar circumstances, prepared to obey the su- 
preme government of the nation, — and proclaimed through 
his department the Code of Cadiz, without any opposition, 
and to the general joy of Spaniards and Cubans. His first 
acts were to reestablish the constitutional ayuntamiento, 
the national militia, the liberty of the press, and all other 
institutions, on the same footing as in 1823,' when King 
Ferdinand recovered absolute authority, and made arrange- 
ments for the election of deputies to the new Cortes. 

Tacon, who was not a friend to liberal institutions, and 
who was fixed in his idea that the new constitution would 
convulse the country, notwithstanding his knowledge of the 
state of things when this law was actually in force in Cuba, 
was quite indignant when he heard what had transpired. 
Knowing that he could not compel General Lorenzo to 
abrogate the constitution he had proclaimed, he forthwith 
cut off all communication with the eastern department, and 
3* 



30 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

formed a column to invade it, and to restore the old order 
of things by force. This was a bold, impolitic and danger- 
ous move, because this resolve was contrary to the wishes 
of the supreme government and public opinion, which would 
not fail to see treason in the act of Gen. Tacon, against the 
mother country. 

Although the royal proclamation which announced to 
Tacon the establishment of the constitution in Spain inti- 
mated forthcoming orders for the election of deputies in 
Cuba to the general Cortes, still he considered that his 
commission as captain-general authorized him, under the 
circumstances, to carry out his own will, and suppress at 
once the movement set on foot by General Lorenzo, on 
the ground of its danger to the peace of the island, and the 
interests of Spain. The royal order, which opened the way 
for his attacks upon the Cuban people, after a confused pre- 
amble, confers on the captain-general all the authority ap- 
pertaining in time of war to a Spanish governor of a city 
in a state of siege, authorizing him in any circumstances 
and by his proper will to suspend any public functionary, 
whatever his rank, civil, military, or ecclesiastical ; to 
banish any resident of the island, without preferring any ac- 
cusations^ to modify any law, or suspend its operations ;* 

* " En su consecuencia da S. M. a V. E. la mas amplia e ilimitada au- 
torizacion, no tan solo para separar de esa Isla a las personas empleadas 
6 no empleadas, cualquiera que sea su destino, rango, clase 6 condicion, 
cuya permanencia en ella crea prejudicial, 6 que le infundarecelossucon- 
ducta publica 6 privada, reemplazandolas interinamente con servidores 
fieles a S. M. y que merezcan a V. E. toda su confianza, si no tambien para 
suspender la ejecucion de cualesquiera ordenes 6 provklencias generates 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 31 

disobey with impunity any regulation emanating from the 
Spanish government ; to dispose of the public revenues at 
his will ; and, finally, to act according to his pleasure, wind- 
ing up with recommending a moderate use of the confidence 
evinced by the sovereign in according power so ample. 

Although the captains-general of Cuba have always 
been invested with extraordinary power, we believe that 
these items of unlimited authority were first conferred upon 
Vivez in 1825, when the island was menaced by an invasion 
of the united forces of Mexico and Columbia. In these 
circumstances, and emanating from an absolute authority, 
like that of Ferdinand VII., a delegation of power which 
placed the destinies of the island at the mercy of its chief 
ruler might have had the color of necessity ; but to con- 
tinue such a delegation of authority in time of peace is a 
most glaring and inexcusable blunder, y 

Meanwhile Tacon assembled a column of picked compa- 
nies of the line, the provincial military and rural cavalry, 
and placed them, under the orders of General Gascue, in the 
town of Guines, hoping by this great parade and prepara- 
tion to impose on General Lorenzo, and strike terror into 
the inhabitants of the whole island. He also adroitly 
worked by secret agents upon the forces at Santiago de 
Cuba, and thus by cunning and adroitness brought about 
quite a reaction in the public sentiment. 

espedidas sobre todos los ramos de la administracion en aquella parte en 
que V. E. considere conveniente al real servicio, debiendo ser en todo caso 
provisionales estas medidas, y dar V. E. cuenta a S. M. para su soberana 
aprobacion." — From the Royal Ordinance conferring unlimited powers 
on the Captains-general of Cuba. 



32 HISTORY OP CUBA. 

Under these circumstances, if General Lorenzo, master 
of the eastern department, with two regiments of regular 
troops, all the national militia, all devoted to the new order 
of things and ready to obey his will, had marched upon 
Puerto Principe, the capital of the centre, where the gar- 
rison was not strong enough to oppose him, and had there 
proclaimed the constitutional code through the authority of 
the royal Audiencia. Gen. Tacon would unquestionably 
have desisted from his opposition, and relinquished the 
command of the island. Cuba would then have enjoyed 
the same political rights as the rest of Spain, and have 
escaped the horrors of tyranny which have since weighed 
her down. But Gen. Lorenzo proved weak, let slip the 
golden opportunity of triumphing over Tacon, and returned 
to Spain in the vain hope that the supreme government 
would sustain him. In the mean time, Tacon sent his body 
of soldiery to Santiago, their arrival being signalized by the 
establishment of a military commission to try and punish 
all who had been engaged innocently in establishing the 
fallen constitution. The commandant Moya presided, and 
the advocate Miret was held as counsel. 

No sooner had this barbarous tribunal commenced its 
proceedings, than no Creole belonging to families of influence 
could look upon himself as safe from persecution, since 
nearly all of them had hastened to obey the orders of 
General Lorenzo, and, like him, taken oath to the constitu- 
tion. Many men of rank, reputation and education, includ- 



HISTOKY OF CUBA. 33 

ing several respectable clergymen, fell under the ban of the 
military commission. Some were thrown into the prisons 
of Santiago de Cuba, some banished for a given period, and 
many emigrated to' avoid the horrors of a Spanish dungeon, 
and the greater part in one way or another were torn from 
the bosoms of their families. Of the soldiers who faith- 
fully obeyed their officers, about five hundred were con- 
demned to work in the streets of Havana, with their feet 
shackled. Such are the measures meted out by despotism 
to those who have the misfortune to live under its iron yoke. 
Tacon triumphed, yet the Cubans did not utterly despair. 
They cherished the hope that the Spanish government 
would recognize the legality of their proceedings in the 
eastern department ; but they were doomed to disappoint- 
ment. The Cuban deputies presented themselves in the 
Spanish capital, and offered their credentials. But they 
were referred to a committee of men profoundly ignorant of 
the feelings, opinions and condition, of the Cuban people, or 
deriving what few notions they possessed from those inter- 
ested on the side of Tacon. The deputies were not allowed 
a seat in the Cortes, and the government decided that the 
provisions of the constitution should not apply to Cuba, 
but that it should be governed by special laws. Since then, 
the island has been ruled by the arbitrary will of the cap- 
tains-general, without intervention of the Spanish Cortes, 
without the intervention of the island, and, what is almost 
inconceivable, at first thought, without the direct action even 
of the sovereign authority. 



34 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Tacon, now that the royal authority had sustained his 
action, was more despotic than ever. It is true that he in- 
troduced some legal and municipal reforms ; that he embel- 
lished the capital, and improved its health ; but under him 
the censorship of the press was almost prohibitory. The 
local ayuntamientos, which, at the most despotic epoch, 
had frequently produced happy effects, by representing to 
the sovereign the wants of the country, were shorn of their 
privileges, and their attributes confined to the collection 
and distribution of the municipal funds. Tacon is also 
charged with promoting the jealousies naturally existing 
between Spaniards and Creoles, and- with completely sub- 
jecting the civil courts to military tribunals. 

" In a state of agitation in the public mind, and disorder 
in the government," says the author of an able pamphlet 
entitled " Cuba y su Gobiemo" to whom we are indebted 
for invaluable information that could only be imparted by a 
Creole, " with the political passions of Spaniards and Cubans 
excited : the island reduced from an integral part of the 
monarchy to the condition of a colony, and with no other 
political code than the royal order, conferring unlimited 
power upon the chief authority ; the country bowed down 
under the weighty tyranny of two military commissions 
established in the capitals of the eastern and western depart- 
ments ; with the prisons filled with distinguished patriots ; 
deprived of representation in the Cortes; the ayuntamien- 
tos prohibited the right of petition ; the press forbidden to 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 35 

enunciate the state of public opinion, closed the adminis- 
tration of General Don Miguel Tacon in the island of Cuba, 
the most calamitous, beyond a question, that this country 
has suffered since its discovery by the Spaniards." 

The liberal party of Cuba, denied the expression of their 
views in the local prints, and anxious to present their wants 
and their grievances before the home government, conceived 
the ingenious idea of establishing organs abroad. Two 
papers were accordingly published ; one at Paris, called u El 
Correo de Ultramar" and one at Madrid, entitled u El Ob- 
servador" edited by distinguished Cubans.* It is scarcely 
necessary to say that these produced no favorable result, 
and the people of the island became convinced that the 
mother country was resolved to persevere in the plan of 
ruling Cuba with a rod of iron, indifferent alike to her tears 
and her remonstrances. 

The programme of the liberal party was exceedingly 
moderate, petitioning only for the following concessions : 
1st, That a special ministry, devoted to Cuban affairs, should 
be established at Madrid ; 2d, That a legal organ of com- 
munication between Spain and Cuba should be established 
in the island, to represent the well-defined interests of the 
metropolis and the colony ; 3d, That some latitude should be 
given to the press, now controlled by a triple censorship ; 

* " La Verdad," a paper devoted to Cuban interests, established in New 
York in 1848, and conducted "with signal ability, is distributed gratui- 
tously, the expense being defrayed by contributions of Cubans and the 
friends of Cuban independence. This is the organ of the annexation 
party, organized by exiles in this country. 



36 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

4th, That efficacious means should be adopted for the com- 
plete suppression of the barbarous traffic in African slaves ; 
5th, That the government should permit the establishment 
of societies for the improvement of the white inhabitants ; 
6th, That the island should be relieved of the enormous 
weight of the contributions now levied upon her. None of 
these privileges, however, have been conceded to suffering 
Cuba by the home government. 

The first successor of General Tacon ruled Cuba with a 
spirit of moderation and temperance, seeking to conciliate 
the liberals, and giving hopes of great reforms, which as 
yet have never been accomplished. During the administra- 
tion of the Prince de Aglona, a superior tribunal, the 
Royal Pretorial Audience, was established in Havana, to take 
cognizance of civil suits in cases of appeal, and to resolve 
the doubts which the confused system of legislation produces 
at every step in the inferior tribunals. Gen. Valdes was 
the first and only official who granted free papers to the 
emancipated negroes who had served out their term of ap- 
prenticeship, and who opposed the African trade. He showed, 
by his example, that this infamous traffic may be destroyed 
in the country without a necessary resort to violent meas- 
ures, but by the will of the captain-general. 

General O'Donnell, as captain-general,* instead of re- 

* General Leopold O'Donnell was appointed governor-general in 1843, 
continuing a little over four years to fill the lucrative position. His wife 
was a singular and most avaricious woman, engaged in many speculations 
upon the island, and shamefully abusing her husband's official influence 
for the purposes of pecuniary emolument. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 37 

pressing, encouraged the slave-trade, and a greater number 
of the unfortunate victims of human avarice were intro- 
duced into the island, during his administration, than during 
any like term since the conclusion of the treaty of 1817. 
Of course he vacated his post vastly enriched by the spoils, 
having doubtless received, as was declared, from one to two 
doubloons per head on every slave landed upon the island 
during his administration ; a sum that would alone amount 
to a fortune. 

Of events which transpired during the administration of 
Roncali and Concha we may have occasion to speak here- 
after, but with this more modern chapter in the history of 
the island the general reader is already conversant. It 
appears almost incredible that an intelligent people, within 
so short a distance of our southern coast, constantly visited 
by the citizens of a free republic, and having the example 
of successful revolt set them, by the men of the same race, 
both in the north and south, weighed down by oppressions 
almost without parallel, should never have aimed an effect- 
ual blow at their oppressors. It would seem that the soft- 
ness of the unrivalled climate of those skies beneath which 

k 

it is luxury only to exist has unnerved them, and that the 
effeminate spirit of the original inhabitants has descended 
in retribution to the posterity of the conquistador es. 
4 



CHAPTER III. 

Armed intervention — Conspiracy of Cienfuegos and Trinidad — General 
Narciso Lopez — The author's views on the subject — Inducements to 
revolt — Enormous taxation — Scheme of the patriots — Lopez's first 
landing in 1850 — Taking of Cardinas — Return of the invaders — 
Effect upon the Cuban authorities — Roncali recalled — New captain- 
general' — Lopez's second expedition — Condition of the Invaders — 
Vicissitudes — Col. Crittenden — Battle of Las Pozas — Superiority of 
courage — Battle of Las Frias — Death of Gen. Enna — The fearful 
finale of the expedition. 

We have noticed in the preceding chapter, the anomaly 
of the political condition of Cuba, increasing in prosperity 
and civilization, imbibing liberal ideas from its geographical 
position, and yet denied participation in the few shadowy 
rights which the peninsular subjects of the enfeebled, dis- 
tracted and despotic parent monarchy enjoyed. We have 
seen that, in later years, the adoption of more liberal ideas 
by Spain produced no amelioration of the condition of the 
colony ; and that, on the other hand, a conformity to the 
legal enactments of the mother country was punished as 
treason. The result of the movement in the western depart- 
ment, under Tacon, showed the Cubans that they had 
nothing to hope from Spain, while the cruelties of General 
O'Donnell increased the great discontent and despair of the 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 39 

people. They now became satisfied that the hope of legal 
reform was but a chimera : and a portion of the liberal party, 
seeing no issue from their insufferable position but that of 
revolution, boldly advocated the intervention of arms. 

In 1848 a conspiracy was formed, in Cienfuegos and 
Trinidad, with the purpose of throwing off the Spanish 
yoke ; but it was soon discovered, and crushed by the im- 
prisonment of various individuals in the central department. 
The principal leader in this movement was General Narciso 
Lopez, who succeeded in effecting his escape to the United 
States, where he immediately placed himself in communi- 
cation with several influential and liberal Creoles, voluntary 
and involuntary exiles, and established a correspondence 
with the remnant of the liberal party yet at liberty on the 
island, at the same time being aided in his plans by Ameri- 
can sympathy. The result of the deliberations of himself, 
his correspondents and associates, was to try by the chances 
of war for the liberation of Cuba. The disastrous result 
of the expedition boldly undertaken for this purpose is 
already well known. 

Before sketching the principal features of this attempt, 
we may be permitted to declare that, although we deplore 
the fate of those of our countrymen who perished in the 
adventure, though we readily concede that many of them 
were actuated by lofty motives, still we must condemn their 
action, and approve of the vigorous measures adopted by 
the federal government to suppress that species of reckless 



40 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

adventure in which the flibustiers engaged. No amount 
of sympathy with the sufferings of an oppressed people, no 
combination of circumstances, no possible results, can excuse 
the fitting out of a warlike expedition in the ports of a na- 
tion against the possessions of a friendly power. The flag 
which has waved unstained in peace and war over a free 
land for more than three quarters of a century, must remain 
spotless to the last. The hopes of every free heart in the 
world are centred on our banner, and we must see to it 
that no speck dims the dazzling lustre of its stars. No 
degree of pride at the daring gallantry displayed by the 
little handful of invaders of Cuba, — a gallantry inherited 
from a brave ancestry who displayed their valor in the holiest 
of causes, — must blind our eyes to the character of the ad- 
venture which called it forth. "We have tears for the fallen, 
as brothers and men ; but our conscience must condemn their 
errors. While, individually, we should rejoice to see Cuba 
free, and an integral portion of the Union, nothing will ever 
induce us to adopt the atrocious doctrine that the ends jus- 
tify the means. But let us pass to a consideration of the 
recent events in the records of the island. 

Many of the leading patriots of the island undoubtedly 
believed that the government of the United States would 
second their efforts, if they should decide to unite themselves 
to our republic, and boldly raise the banner of annexation. 
A portion of the Cuban liberals adopted the motto, ' ' Legal 
Reform or Independence;" and these two factions of the 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 41 

patriots did not henceforth act in perfect concert with each 
other — a most fatal error to the interests of both. Time 
and circumstances favored the war and annexation party ; 
the people were more than ever discontented with a govern- 
ment which so oppressed them by a military despotism, and 
by the enormous weight of the unjust taxation levied upon 
them. We may here remark that the increase of the public 
revenue, in the midst of so many elements of destruction 
and ruin, can only be explained by the facility with which 
the captain-general and royal stewards of the island invent 
and arrange taxes, at their pleasure, and without a shadow 
of propriety, or even precedent. 

The consuming population of Cuba amounts to about 
eight hundred thousand souls, and the total amount of taxes 
and contributions of various forms is more than twenty-three 
millions of dollars, in specie, per annum ! It is hardly con- 
ceivable that such a sum can be extorted from a population 
whose wealth is precarious, and whose living is so costly. 
With this revenue the government pays and supports an 
army of over twenty thousand Peninsular troops in the 
island ; a vast number of employes, part of the clergy and 
half the entire navy of Spain ; the diplomatic corps in the 
United States and Mexico ; many officials of rank at home 
in Spain ; and the surplus is remitted to Spain, and spent 
on the Peninsula on matters entirely foreign to the interests 
of the .island itself. A precious state of affairs ! 

CThe colored population of the island, both slaves and 
4* 



42 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

free, hated the Spaniards, for good reasons. The war 
party, moreover, reckoned on the genius of a leader (Lopez) 
trained to arms,* equal in talents to any of the Spanish 
generals, and beloved by the Spanish troops, as well as by 
the Cuban population ; and they relied, also, as we have 
said, on the sympathy and ultimate aid of the United 
States government. It is undoubtedly true that interested 
parties in this country, prompted by mercenary motives, 
increased this latter delusion by false reports ; while the 
Cuban conspirators, in turn, buoyed up the hopes of their 
friends in the United States, by glowing accounts of the 
patriotic spirit of the Creoles, and the extent of the prepara- 
tions they were making for a successful revolt. General 
Lopez was actively arranging the means for an invasion, 
when, in 1849, the United States government threw terror 
into the ranks of the JUbustiers, by announcing its deter- 
mination to enforce the sacredness of treaty stipulations. 
This, for a time, frustrated the intended invasion. 

In 1850 Lopez succeeded in effecting his first descent 
upon the island. Having succeeded in baffling the vigilance 
of the United States government, an expedition, consisting 
of six hundred and fifty-two men, was embarked on board 
two sailing-vessels and the steamer Creole, which conveyed 
the general and his staff. In the beginning of July the 
sailing-vessels left New Orleans, with orders to anchor 

* His reputation as a cavalry officer was very distinguished, and lie \v;is 
commonly recognized as La primera Lanza de Enpana (the first lance 
of Spain). — Louis Schlesinger's Narrative of the Expedition. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 43 

at Contoy, one of the Mugeres Islands, on the coast of 
Yucatan ; the general followed, on the Creole, on the 7th. 
At the time when the troops were embarked on the Creole 
at Contoj, fifty-two of the number, who had been deceived 
as to the nature of the expedition, refused to follow the gen- 
eral, and were left on the island, with the intention of 
returning to the United States in the two schooners. Gen- 
eral Lopez, after gaining some information from a fisherman 
he encountered, resolved to land at Cardenas, on the north- 
ern coast of the island, a hundred and twenty miles east of 
Havana. He calculated that he could surprise and master 
the garrison before the captain-general could possibly obtain 
intelligence of his departure from New Orleans. His plan 
was, to master the town, secure the authorities, intimidate 
the Spaniards, and then, sustained by the moral influence 
of victory, proceed to Matanzas by railroad. 

Roncali, the captain-general, having received intelligence 
of the landing at Contoy, despatched several ships-of-war in 
that direction, to seize upon the general and his followers. 
The latter, however, escaped the snare, and effected his 
landing on the 19th. The garrison rushed to arms, and, 
while a portion of the troops, after immaterial loss, retired 
in good order to the suburbs, another, under the command 
of Governor Ceruti, intrenched themselves in the govern- 
ment-house, and gave battle to the invaders. After a 
sharp skirmish, the building being set on fire, they surren- 
dered ; the governor and two or three officers were made 



44 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

prisoners, and the soldiers consented to join the revolution- 
ary colors ! Meanwhile, a body of one hundred invaders 
seized upon the railroad station. The engines were fired 
up, and the trains made ready to transport the invading 
column to Matanzas. 

But now came a pause. General Lopez, seeing that the 
native population did not respond to his appeal, knew that 
as soon as the news of the taking of Cardenas should be 
circulated, he would be in a very critical situation. In 
fact, the governor of Matanzas was soon on the march, at 
the head of five hundred men. General Armero sailed from 
Havana in the Pizarro, with a thousand infantry, while two 
thousand five hundred picked troops, under the command of 
General Count de Mirasol, were sent from Havana by the 
railroad. Lopez saw that it would be madness to wait the 
attack of these formidable columns, unsupported save by his 
own immediate followers, and accordingly issued his orders 
for the reembarkation of his band, yet without relinquish- 
ing the idea of landing on some more favorable point of the 
island. 

That portion of the garrison which, in the beginning of 
the affair, had retreated to the suburbs, finding itself rein- 
forced by a detachment of cavalry, attempted to cut off the 
retreat of the invading general ; but the deadly fire of the 
latter' s reserve decimated the horse, and the infantry, dis- 
mayed at their destruction, took to rapid flight. The Creole 
accordingly left the port without molestation, and before 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 45 

the arrival of the government steam-frigate Pizarro. The 
Spanish prisoners were landed at Cajo de Piedras, and 
then Lopez, discovering the Pizarro in the distance, made 
for the American continent, where the steamer was aban- 
doned. General Lopez was arrested by the authorities of 
Savannah, but liberated again, in deference to the public 
clamor. The Creole was seized, confiscated and sold. The 
invaders disbanded ; and thus this enterprise terminated. 

A less enterprising and determined spirit than that of 
General Lopez would have been completely broken by the 
failure of his first attempts, the inactivity of the Cubans, 
the hostility of the American government, and the formid- 
able forces and preparations of the Spanish officials. He 
believed, however, that the Cubans were ripe for revolt ; 
that public opinion in the United States would nullify the 
action of the federal government ; and that, if he could once 
gain a foothold in the island, the Spanish troops would 
desert in such numbers to his banners that the preponder- 
ance of power would soon be upon his side ; and, with these 
views, he once more busied himself, with unremitting indus- 
try, to form another expedition. 

Meanwhile; the daring attack upon Cardenas, while it 
demonstrated the determination of the invading party, 
caused great anxiety in the mind of General Roncali. 
True, he had at his disposal an army of more than twenty 
thousand regular troops ; but he was by no means sure of 
their loyalty, and he therefore determined to raise a local 



46 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

militia ; but, as he suffered only Spaniards to enlist in it, 
he aroused the jealousy of the Cuban-born inhabitants, and 
thus swelled the force of opposition against the government. 
General Lopez was informed of this fact, and based new 
hopes upon the circumstance. 

The Spanish government, having recalled Roncali, ap- 
pointed Don Jose de la Concha captain-general of the 
island, and the severity of his sway reminded the inhabitants 
of the iron rule of Tacon. It was during his administration 
that Lopez effected his second landing at Playitas, sixty 
miles west of Havana. Several partial insurrections, which 
had preceded this event, easily suppressed, as it appears, by 
the Spanish government, but exaggerated in the accounts 
despatched to the friends of Cuba in the United States, 
inflamed the zeal of Lopez, and made him believe that the 
time for a successful invasion had at length arrived.* He 
was so confident, at one time, of the determination and 
ability of the Cubans alone to secure their independence, 
that he wished to embark without any force, and throw him- 
self among them. It was this e^nfidence that led him to 
embark with only four hundred ill-armed men on board the 
little steamer Pampero, on the 2d of August, 1851. This 

* " The general showed me much of his correspondence from the island. 
It represented a pervading anxiety for his arrival, on the part of the Creole 
population. His presence alone, to head the insurrection, which would 
then become general, was all they called for ; his presence and a supply 
of arms, of which they were totally destitute. The risings already made 
were highly colored in some of the communications addressed to him from 
sources of unquestionable sincerity." — Louis Schlesinger's Narrative of 
the Expedition. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 47 

force consisted mostly of Americans, but embraced forty- 
nine Cubans in its ranks, with several German and Hunga- 
rian officers : among the latter, General Pragay, one of the 
heroes of the Hungarian revolution, who was second in 
command to General Lopez on this occasion. 

Many of the foreign officers spoke little, if any, English, 
and mutual jealousies and insubordinations soon manifested 
themselves in the little band. They were composed of 
fierce spirits, and had come together without any previous 
drilling or knowledge of each other. It was not the inten- 
tion of the commander-in-chief to sail direct for Cuba, but 
to go to the neighborhood of St. John's river, Florida, 
and get a supply of artillery, ammunition, extra arms, etc. 
He then proposed to land somewhere in the central depart- 
ment, where he thought he could get a footing, and rally a 
formidable force, before the government troops could reach 
him. But, when five days out, Lopez discovered that the 
Pampero was short of coal ; as no time could be spared to 
remedy this deficiency, he resolved to effect a landing at 
once, and send back the Pampero for reinforcements and 
supplies. At Key West he obtained favorable intelligence 
from Cuba, which confirmed his previous plans. He learned 
that a large portion of the troops had been sent to the east- 
ern department ; and he accordingly steered for Bahia 
Honda (deep bay). The current of the gulf, acting while 
the machinery of the boat was temporarily stopped for 
repairs, and the variation of the compass in the neighbor- 



48 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

hood of so many arms, caused the steamer to run out of her 
course on the night of the 10th ; and when the morn- 
ing broke, the invaders found themselves heading for the 
narrow entrance of the harbor of Havana ! 

The course of the steamer was instantly altered; but 
all on board momentarily expected the apparition of a war 
steamer from the channel between the Moro and the Punta. 
It appeared, afterwards, that the Pampero was signalized as 
a strange steamer, but not reported as suspicious until 
evening. The Pampero then made for the bay of Cabanas ; 
but, just as she was turning into the entrance, a Spanish 
frigate and sloop-of-war were seen at anchor, the first of 
which immediately gave chase, but, the wind failing, the 
frigate gave it up, and returned to the bay to send intelli- 
gence of the expedition to Havana. The landing was finally 
effected at midnight, between the 11th and 12th of August, 
and the steamer was immediately sent off to the United 
States for further reinforcements. As it was necessary to 
obtain transportation for the baggage, General Lopez 
resolved to leave Col. Crittenden with one hundred and 
twenty men to guard it, and with the remainder of the 
expedition to push on to Las Pozas, a village about ten 
miles distant, whence he could send back carts and horses 
to receive it. Among the baggage were four barrels of 
powder, two of cartridges, the officers' effects, including the 
arms of the general, and the flag of the expedition. From 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 49 

the powder and arms they should not have separated, but 
have divided that, against contingency. 

In the mean time, seven picked companies of Spanish 
troops of the line had been landed at Bahia Honda, which 
force was strengthened by contingents drawn from the 
neighborhood. The march of the invading band to Las 
Pozas was straggling and irregular. On reaching the vil- 
lage, they found it deserted by the inhabitants. A few carts 
were procured and sent back to Crittenden, that he might 
advance with the baggage. Lopez here learned from a 
countryman of the preparations making to attack him. It 
was no portion of his plan to bring the men into action with 
regular troops, in their present undisciplined state ; he pro- 
posed rather to take a strong position in the mountains, and 
there plant his standard as a rallying-point, and await the 
rising of the Cubans, and the return of the Pampero with 
reinforcements for active operations. 

As soon as Lopez learned the news from Bahia Honda, 
he despatched a peremptory order to Crittenden to hasten up 
with the rear-guard, abandoning the heavy baggage, but 
bringing off the cartridges and papers of the expedition. 

But the fatal delay of Crittenden separated him forever 
from the main body, only a small detachment of his comrades 
(under Captain Kelly) ever reaching it. The next day, 
while breakfast was being prepared for them, the soldiers of 
the expedition were suddenly informed, by a volley from one 
of the houses of the village, that the Spanish troops were upon 
5 



50 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

them. They flew to arms at once, and the Cuban company 
dislodged the vanguard of the enemy, who had fired, at the 
point of the bayonet, their captain, Oberto, receiving his 
death- wound in the spirited affair. General Enna, a brave 
officer, in command of the Spanish troops, made two charges 
in column on the centre of the invaders' line, but was re- 
pulsed by that deadly fire which is the preeminent charac- 
teristic of American troops. Four men alone escaped 
from the company heading the first column, and seventeen 
from that forming the advance of the second column of at- 
tack. The Spaniards were seized with a panic, and fled. 

Lopez's force in this action amounted to about two hun- 
dred and eighty men ; the Spaniards had more than eight 
hundred. The total loss of the former, in killed and 
wounded, was thirty-five ; that of the latter, about two 
hundred men killed, and a large number wounded ! The 
invaders landed with about eighty rounds of cartridges 
each ; the Spanish dead supplied them with about twelve 
thousand more ; and a further supply was subsequently ob- 
tained at Las Frias ; the ammunition left with Crittenden 
was never recovered. In the battle of Las Pozas, General 
Enna's horse was shot under him, and his second in com- 
mand killed. The invaders lost Colonel Downman, a brave 
American officer ; while General Pragay was wounded, and 
afterwards died in consequence. Though the invaders fired 
well and did terrible execution, they could not be prevailed 
upon to charge the enemy, and gave great trouble to the 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 51 

officers by their insubordination. The night after the bat' 
tie, Captain Kelly came up with forty men, and announced 
that the Spanish troops had succeeded in dividing the rear- 
guard, and that the situation of Crittenden was unknown. 
It was not until some days afterwards that it was ascertained 
that Crittenden's party, attempting to leave the island in 
launches, had been made prisoners by a Spanish man-of- 
war. They were taken to Havana, and brutally shot at the 
castle of Atares. 

About two o'clock on the 14th of August, the expedition 
resumed its march for the interior, leaving behind their 
wounded, who were afterwards killed and mutilated by the 
Spaniards. The second action with the Spanish troops oc- 
curred at the coffee-plantation of Las Frias, General Enna 
attacking with four howitzers, one hundred and twenty cav- 
alry, and twelve hundred infantry. The Spanish general 
attacked with his cavalry, but they were met by a deadly fire, 
thrown into utter confusion, and forced to retreat, carrying 
off the general mortally wounded. The panic of the caval- 
ry communicated itself to the infantry, and the result was 
a complete rout. This was the work of about two hundred 
muskets ; for many of Lopez's men had thrown away their 
arms on the long and toilsome march. 

The expedition, however, was too weak to profit by their 
desperate successes, and had no means of following up these 
victories. Plunging into the mountains, they wandered 
about for days, drenched with rain, destitute of food or 



52 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

proper clothing, until despair at last seized them. They sep- 
arated from each other, a few steadfast comrades remaining 
by their leader. In the neighborhood of San Cristoval, 
Lopez finally surrendered to a party of pursuers. He was 
treated with every indignity by his captors, though he sub- 
mitted to everything with courage and serenity. He was 
taken in a steamer from Mariel to Havana. 

Arrived here, he earnestly desired to obtain an interview 
with Concha, who had been an old companion-in-arms with 
him in Spain ; not that he expected pardon at his hands, 
but hoping to Qbtain a change in the manner of his death. 
His soul shrank from the infamous garrotte, and he aspired 
to the indulgence of the cuatro tiros (four shots). Both 
the interview and the indulgence were refused, and he was 
executed on the first of September, at seven o'clock in the 
morning, in the Punta, by that mode of punishment which 
the Spaniards esteem the most infamous of all. When he 
landed at Bahia Honda, he stooped and kissed the earth, 
with the fond salutation, " Querida Cuba" (dear Cuba) ! 
and his last words, pronounced in a tone of deep tenderness, 
were, " Muero por mi amada Cuba " (I die for my be- 
loved Cuba).* 

The remainder of the prisoners who fell into the hands 
of the authorities were sent to the Moorish fortress of Ceu- 



* General Lopez was born in Venezuela, South America, in 1798 ; and 
hence, at the time of his execution, must have been about fifty-two years 
of age. He early became an adopted citizen of Cuba, and espoused one 
of its daughters. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 53 

ta ; but Spain seems to have been ashamed of the massacre 
of Atares, and has atoned for the ferocity of her colonial 
officials by leniency towards the misguided men of the ex- 
pedition, granting them a pardon. 

At present it may be said that "order reigns in War- 
saw," and the island is comparatively quiet in the pres- 
ence of a vast armed force. To Concha have succeeded 
Canedo and Pezuelas, but no change for the better has taken 
place in the administration of the island. f Rigorous to the 
native population, insolent and overbearing to foreigners, 
respecting no flag and regarding no law, the captains-general 
bear themselves as though Spain was still a first-rate power 
as of yore, terrible on land, and afloat still the mistress of 
the sea. \ 

5* 



CHAPTER IV. 

Present condition of Cuba — Secret treaty with France and England — 
British plan for the Africanization of the island — Sale of Cuba — 
Measures of General Pezuela — Registration of slaves — Intermarriage 
of blacks and whites — Contradictory proclamations — Spanish duplicity 
— A Creole's view of the crisis and the prospect. 

Cuba is at present politically in a critical and alarming 
condition, and the most intelligent natives and resident for- 
eigners live in constant dread of a convulsion more terrific 
and sanguinary than that which darkened the annals of St. 
Domingo. Those best informed of the temper, designs and 
position of Spain, believe in the existence of a secret treaty 
between that country, France and England, by which the 
two latter powers guarantee to Spain her perpetual posses- 
sion of the island, on condition of her carrying out the 
favorite abolition schemes of the British government, and 
Africanizing the island. Spain, it is supposed, unable to 
stand alone, and compelled to elect between the loss of her 
colony and subserviency to her British ally, has chosen of 
the two evils that which wounds her pride the least, and is 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 55 

best calculated to secure the interests of monarchical Eu- 
rope. All the recent measures of the Captain-general 
Pezuela are calculated to produce the conviction that the ■ 
/ Africanization of Cuba has been resolved upon ; and, if his 
alarming proclamation of the third of May has been some- 
what modified by subsequent proclamations and official 
declarations, it is only because the Spanish government 
lacks the boldness to unmask all its schemes, while the 
Eastern war prevents France and Great Britain from send- 
ing large armaments to Cuba to support it ; and because the 
national vessels and troops destined to swell the government 
forces in the island have not all arrived. But for the exist- 
ence of the war in the East, the manifestoes of the captain- 
general would have been much more explicit. As it is, 
they are sufficiently bold and menacing. 

A peaceful solution to the question of Cuba, by its sale to 
the United States, is not regarded as probable by the best- 
informed Creoles. They say that, even if the queen were 
disposed to sell the island, it would be impossible to obtain 
the consent of the Cortes. The integrity of the Spanish 
domain, including all the islands, is protected by legal en- 
actment ; and it would require the abrogation of a funda- 
mental law before it could be consummated.* Now, the 
Spanish subjects well understand that they would not be 
likely to be gainers by the sale of Cuba, however large a 

* The administration of Brayo Murillo fell in an attempt of this kind, 
and did not rise again. 



t 



56 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

sum the United States might be willing to pay for it, while 
the monopoly to trade, the bestowal of lucrative insular 
offices on Spaniards alone, and other incidental advantages, 
give them a direct interest in the maintenance of the pres- 
ent order of things. Those who take this view of the 
question say that if Spain has not promptly rejected the 
overtures supposed to have been made by our minister at 
Madrid, this delay indicates only a conscious weakness, and 
not any hesitation of purpose. It is simply a diplomatic 
trick — a temporizing policy. Why, they ask, if Spain had 
any idea of parting with the island, would she be making 
naval and military preparations on a grand and costly scale, 
at home, while in the island she is making large levies, and 
enrolling colored troops, not as militia, as the government 
has falsely given out, but as regulars 1 We are reluctant 
to abandon the hope of our purchasing the island, but can- 
dor compels us to state the plausible arguments of those 
who assert that no success can possibly attend the plan for 
its peaceable acquisition. 

Within a brief space of time, the administration of Gen- 
eral Pezuela has been signalized by measures of great sig- 
nificance and importance : The decree of the third of May; 
the order for the registration of slaves introduced into the 
island in violation of the treaty of 1817 ; the decree .free- 
ing more than fifteen thousand emancipados in the space 
of a fortnight; that of May 25th, enrolling and arming 
negroes and mulattocs ; the project for importing negroes 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 57 

and mulattoes from Africa, under the name of free appren- 
tices ; the institution of free schools for the instruction of 
the blacks, while the whites are abandoned to their own re- 
sources ; and, finally, the legalization of the intermarriages 
of blacks and whites, which last measure has actually been 
carried into effect, to the indignation of the Creoles, — all 
these measures show the determination of the Spanish gov- 
ernment to bring about the emancipation of slavery, and the 
social equalization of the colored and white population, that 
it may maintain its grasp upon the island, under penalty of 
a war of races, which could only terminate in the extinction 
of the whites, in case of a revolutionary movement, j 

The proclamation of the third of May, alluded to"' above, 
and disclosing some of the abolition plans of the govern- 
ment, produced a startling sensation. In it the captain- 
general said: "It is time for the planter to substitute 
for the rapid but delusive advantages derived from the sale 
of human flesh, safer profits, more in harmony with civiliza- 
tion, religion and morals ; " and that "the time had come 
to make the life of the slave sweeter than that of the white 
man who labors under another name in Europe." The 
proclamation, coupled with that conferring exclusive ed- 
ucational advantages on colored persons, roused even the 
Spaniards ; some of the wealthiest and most influential of 
whom held secret meetings to discuss the measures to be 
adopted in such a crisis, in which it was resolved to with- 
hold all active aid from the government, some going so far 



58 HISTORY OP CUBA. 

as to advocate the making of common cause with the 
Creoles. The mere hint of a fusion between the Spaniards 
and Creoles, whom it has been the policy of the colonial 
government to alienate from each other, was sufficient to ex- 
cite the fears of the captain-general ; and accordingly, on the 
31st of May, he published a sort of explanatory manifesto, 
designed to allay the alarm of the Spaniards, and conflict- 
ing, in several points, with that of the 3d. "Her Majes- 
ty's government," says the document of the 31st, " is well 
aware that the unhappy race (the Africans), once placed 
among civilized men, and protected by the religion and the 
great laws of our ancestors, is, in its so-called slavery, a 
thousand times happier than other European classes, whose 
liberty is only nominal." If this assertion wore true, what 
becomes of the famous declaration, in the former proclama- 
tion, that the time had arrived to make the life of the slave 
happier than of the white European laborer ? If this asser- 
tion were true, that " good time " had not only arrived, but 
passed away, and his measures for the improvement of the 
involuntary bondmen were actually supererogatory. The 
owners of slaves are, moreover, assured that they shall not 
be disturbed in the possession of their " legitimate prop- 
erty," and that the government will conciliate a due regard 
for such property "with the sacred fulfilment of treaties." 
It is very evident that the Creoles are doomed to be the 
victims of Spanish duplicity. It is notorious that many 
thousands of slaves have been introduced into the island, for 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 59 

a series of years, with the connivance of the government, 
when they had it in their power, at any time, to stop the 
traffic altogether. The vigilance of the British cruisers was 
baffled by the assurance that the Africans thus brought over 
were apprentices, Spain never hesitating to deceive an ally ; 
and now, when compelled to keep faith, in a desperate 
emergency, she betrays her own subjects, and throws the 
penalty of her own bad faith on them. 

A gentleman residing in Cuba writes: "No one can be 
here, and watch the progress of things, without being con- 
vinced that the ultimate object is the emancipation of the 
slaves of the island transported subsequent to the treaty of 
1820, which will comprise four-fifths of the whole number ; 
and no one who is an attentive observer, and with his ears 
open, but must be satisfied that there is some other powerful 
influence brought to bear on the subject besides Spain. 
Take, for instance, the late order for the registration of the 
slaves. The British consul openly says that the British 
government have, been, for a long time, urging the measure. 
But it is not only in this, but in every other step taken, 
that the British finger is constantly seen. A thousand cor- 
roborative circumstances could be cited. Cuba is to-day 
indebted to Russia for being free from this calamity. But 
for the emperor's obstinacy, there would have been an Eng- 
lish and French fleet that would have enabled them to carry 
out all the measures they have in contemplation." 

With relation to the intermarriage of blacks and whites, 



60 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

our informant says, " Many marriages have been performed 
since the date of the circular," — that of the Bishop of 
Havana to the curates of the island, by the authority of 
the captain-general. ) 

" The captain-general," says the same authority, " is 
now exerting his influence for the admission of blacks into 
the university, to prepare them for clerical orders. Should 
this system be adopted, I fear it will lead to bad conse- 
quences. It will, of course, be strenuously opposed. The 
indignation of the Creoles has been difficult to restrain, — 
at which you cannot be surprised, when their daughters, 
wives and sisters, are daily insulted, particularly by those 
in uniform. I fear a collision may take place. If once 
commenced, it will be terrific." 

The decree authorizing the celebration of marriages 
between blacks and whites has probably produced more 
indignation among the Creoles than any other official acts 
of the captain-general. Lit was directed to the bishop in 
the form of a circular, and issued on the 22d of May. On 
the 29th of the same month, the bishop transmitted copies 
of it to all the curates within his jurisdiction ; and, as we 
have seen, many of these incongruous marriages have been 
already solemnized. Notwithstanding these notorious and 
well-authenticated facts, the official organ of the govern- 
ment, the Diario de la Mari?ia ) had the effrontery to 
publish a denial of the transaction, asserting it to be mere 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 61 

idle gossip, without the slightest foundation, and ridiculing 
the idea in a tone of levity and persiflage. 

This may teach us how little dependence is to be placed 
on the declarations of the Spanish officials ; and we shall 
be prepared to receive with incredulity the denial, in the 
name of the queen, of the existence of a treaty with Eng- 
land, having for its base the abolition of slavery, as a reward 
for British aid in preserving Cuba to Spain. The captain- 
general says that she relies not on foreign aid to maintain 
her rights, but on her powerful " navy and disciplined 
army ; on the loyalty of the very immense (inmensisimd) 
majority of her vigorous native citizens (Creoles) ; on the 
strength imparted to the good by the defence of their 
hearths, their laws and their God ; and on the hurricanes /^ 
and yellow fever for the enemy." 

" Here," writes a Cuban gentleman, commenting on the 
above declaration, " we must make a pause, and remark, en 
passant, that the name of her majesty thus invoked, far 
from giving force to the denial, weakens it greatly ; for we 
all know the value of the royal word, particularly that of 
her majesty Isabella II. In her name a full pardon was 
offered to Armenteros and his associates, who raised the cry 
of independence in Trinidad, and this document effected the 
purpose for which it was designed. Armenteros and the 
others, who placed reliance in the royal word, were, some 
of them, shot, and the rest deported to African dungeons. 
No reliance can be placed on the loyalty of the vast major- 
6 



62 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

ity of the vigorous citizens (unless the negroes alone are 
comprehended under this phrase), when the whites are 
deprived of arms for the defence of their country, and men 
are fined five pesos for carrying canes of a larger size than 
can be readily introduced into a gun-barrel, and free people 
of color are alone admitted into the ranks of the troops. 
The Cubans are not relied upon, since, to prevent their join- 
ing Lopez, all the roads were blockaded, and everybody 
found on them shot ; and the immense number of exiles 
does not prove the majority which favors the government to 
be so prodigious. 

" The value of the powerful navy and well- trained army 
of the island was shown in the landing of Lopez, and the 
victories that three hundred men constantly obtained over 
an army of seven thousand, dispersing only when ammuni- 
tion failed them. Hurricanes and the yellow fever are most 
melancholy arms of defence ; and, if they only injured the 
enemy, the Spaniards, who are as much exposed as other 
Europeans to the fatal influence, would be the true ene- 
mies of Cuba." 

The following remarks on the present condition and pros- 
pects of the island are translated from a letter written by an 
intelligent Creole, thoroughly conversant with its affairs : 

"The whites tremble for their existence and property; 
no one thinks himself secure; confidence has ceased, and 
with it credit ; capitalists have withdrawn their money from 
circulation ; the banks of deposit have suspended their dis- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 63 

counts; premiums have reached a fabulous point for the 
best of paper. The government was not ignorant that this 
would be the result, and prepared to get out of the mo- 
mentary crisis by the project of a bank,^ published in the 
Gaceta of the 4th (May) ; but the most needy class, in the 
present embarrassed circumstances, is that of the planters ; 
and it is necessary, to enable them to fulfil their engage- 
ments, that their notes should be made payable at the end 
of the year, — that is, from harvest to harvest, — and not 
at the end of six months, as provided for in the regulations. 
But it matters not ; we are pursuing the path which will 
precipitate us into the abyss, if instantaneous and efficacious 
help does not come to save the island from the imminent 
ruin which threatens it. 

" The cause of the liberty of nations has always perished 
in its cradle, because its defenders have never sought to 
deviate from legal paths, — because they have followed the 
principles sanctioned by the laws of nations ; while despots, 
always the- first to exact obedience to them when it suited 
their convenience, have been the first to infringe them when 
they came into collision with their interests. Their alli- 
ances to suppress liberty are called holy, and the crimes 
they commit by invading foreign territories, and summoning 
foreign troops to their aid to qppress their own vassals, are 
sacred duties, compliances with secret compacts ; and, if the 

* Pezuela's bank is to have a capital of two million dollars ; the gov- 
ernment to be a shareholder for half a million. The effect of such an 
institution would be to drain the island of specie. 



64 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

congresses, parliaments and Cortes of other nations, raise 
the cry to Heaven, they answer, the government has pro- 
tested, — acts have been performed without their sanction. — 
there is no remedy, — they are acts accomplished. 

"An act accomplished will shortly be the abolition of 
slavery in Cuba ; and the tardy intervention of the United 
States will only have taken place when its brilliant constel- 
lation lights up the vast sepulchre which will cover the 
bodies of her sons, sacrificed to the black race as a reward 
for their sympathies with American institutions, and the 
vast carnage it will cost to punish the African victors. 
What can be done to-day without great sacrifices to help 
the Cubans, to-morrow cannot be achieved without the 
effusion of rivers of blood, and when the few surviving 
Cubans will curse an intervention which, deaf to their cries, 
will only be produced by the cold calculations of egotism. 
Then the struggle will not be with the Spaniards alone. 
The latter will now accede to all the claims of the cabinet 
at Washington, by the advice of the ambassadors of France 
and England, to advance, meanwhile, with surer step- to 
the end, — to give time for the solution of the Eastern ques- 
tion, and for France and England to send their squadrons 
into these waters. Well may they deny the existence of 
secret treaties ; this is very easy for kings, as it will be 
when the case of the present treaty comes up, asserting that 
the treaty was posterior to their negative, or refusing expla- 
nations as inconsistent with their dignity. But we witness 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 65 

the realization of our fears ; we see the Spanish government 
imperturbably setting on foot plans which were thought to 
be the delirium of excited imaginations ; doing at once what 
promised to be a gradual work; and hear it declared, by dis- 
tinguished persons, who possess the confidence of General 
Pezuela, that the existence of the treaty is certain, and that 
the United States will be told that they should have 
accepted the offer made to become a party to it, in which 
case the other two powers could not have adopted the 
abolition scheme. But, supposing this treaty to have no 
existence, the fact of the abolition of slavery is no less cer- 
tain. It is only necessary to read the proclamation of the 
captain-general, if the last acts of the government be not 
sufficiently convincing. The result to the island of Cuba 
and to the United States is the same, either way. If the 
latter do not hasten to avert the blow, they will soon find it 
impossible to remedy the evil. In the island there is not a 
reflecting man, — foreigner or native, Creole or European, — 
who does not tremble for the future that awaits us, at a 
period certainly not far remote." 
6* 



CHAPTER V. 

Geographical position of the island — Its size — The climate — Advice to 
invalids — Glance at the principal cities — Matanzas — Puerto Principe 
— Santiago de Cuba — Trinidad — The ■writer's first view of Havana — 
Importance of the capital — Its literary institutions — Restriction on 
Cuban youths and education — Glance at the city streets — Style of 
architecture — Domestic arrangements of town houses — A word about 
Cuban ladies — Small feet — Grace of manners and general character- 
istics. 

Having thus briefly glanced at the political story of 
Cuba, let us now pass to a consideration of such peculiarities 
of climate, soil and population, as would naturally interest a 
stranger on visiting the island. The form, geographically 
speaking, of Cuba, is quite irregular, and resembles the 
blade of a Turkish scimeter slightly curved back, or ap- 
proaching the form of a long, narrow crescent. It stretches 
away in this shape from east to west, throwing its western 
end into a curve, as if to form an impregnable barrier to 
the outlet of the Gulf of Mexico ; and as if, at some ancient 
period, it had formed a part of the American continent, and 
had been severed on its north side from the Florida penin- 
sula by the wearing of the Gulf-stream, and from Yucatan, 
on its south-western point, by a current setting into the gulf. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 67 

Its political position all concede to be of the most vital 
importance to the United States ; and this will be apparent 
to any one, from the slightest inspection of the map. 

It is the most westerly of the West Indian isles, and, 
compared with the rest, has nearly twice as much superficial 
extent of territory. Its greatest extent, from east to west, is 
about six hundred miles ; its narrowest part, twenty-two 
miles. The circumference is about two thousand miles, con- 
taining some thirty- two thousand square miles.* The nar- 
row form of the island, and the Cordillera chain of moun- 
tains, which divides it throughout its whole length, leave a 
very limited course for its rivers and streams ; and conse- 
quently these in the rainy season become torrents, and 
during the rest of the year are nearly dried up. Those 
that sustain themselves throughout the year are well stocked 
with delicate and finely-flavored fish. 

Probably no place on the earth has a finer or more desir- 
able climate than has the main portion of Cuba : f with 
the clear atmosphere of the low latitudes, no mist, the sun 
seldom obscured, and the appearance of the stars and 
sky at night far brighter and more beautiful than at the 
north. J The atmosphere does not seem to lose its transpar- 

* Humboldt's calculation makes it contain forty-three thousand, three 
hundred and eighty square miles ; hut other estimates approximate more 
nearly our own statement. 

t According to Dr. Finlay, a resident physician on the island, its hottest 
months are July and August, when the mean temperature is from 80° to 
83° Fahrenheit. 

t " The nights are very dark, but the darkness is as if transparent ; the 
air is not felt. There could not be more beautiful nights in Paradise." — 
Miss Bremer's Letters. 



68 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

ency with the departure of day. Sunset is ever remarkable 
for its soft, mellow beauty here, and the long twilight that 
follows it. For many years the island has been the resort 
of the northern invalid in search of health, especially of 
those laboring under pulmonary affections ; the soft, soothing 
power of the climate having a singularly healing influence, 
as exercised in the balmy trade-winds.* The climate so 
uniformly soft and mild, the vegetation so thriving and 
beautiful, the fruits so delicious and abundant, seem to give 
it a character almost akin to that we have seen described in 
tales of fairy land. 

The declining health of a beloved companion was the 
motive which induced the author of these pages to visit the 
delightful climate of Cuba, with the hope that its genial 
and kindly influence might revive her physical powers ; nor 
were these hopes disappointed; for, transplanted from the 
rough climate of our own New England, immediate and 
permanent improvement was visible. To persons in the 
early stages of pulmonary complaints the West Indies hold 
forth great promise of relief; and, at the period when inva- 
lid New Englanders most require to avoid their own homes, 
namely, during the prevailing east winds of April, May and 
June, the island of Cuba is in the glory of high summer, 
and enjoying the healthiest period of its yearly returns. 
After the early part of June, the unacclimated would do 

* When consumption originates in Cuba, it runs its course so rapidly 
that there is, perhaps, no wonder the Creoles should deem it, as they uni- 
versally do, to be contagious. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 69 

well to take passage up the gulf to New Orleans, and come 
gradually north with the advancing season. From the 
proximity of Cuba in the north-western parts to our own 
continent, the climate is variable, and a few hundred feet 
above the level of the sea ice is sometimes formed, but snow 
never falls upon the island, though it is occasionally visited 
in this region by hail storms. In the cities and near the 
swamps, the yellow fever, that scourge of all hot climates, 
prevails from the middle of June to the last of October ; 
but in the interior of the island, where the visitor is at a 
wholesome distance from humidity and stagnant water, it is 
no more unhealthy than our own cities in summer. It is 
doubtful if Havana, even in the fever season, is as unhealthy 
as New Orleans during the same period of the year. 

The principal cities of the island are Havana, with a 
population of about two hundred thousand ; Matanzas, 
twenty-five thousand ; Puerto Principe, fourteen thousand ; 
Santiago de Cuba, thirty thousand ; Trinidad, thirteen thou- 
sand; St. Salvador, eight thousand; Manzanilla, three 
thousand; Cardenas, Nuevitas, Sagua la Grande, Mariel, 
etc. etc. Cuba abounds in fine large harbors ; those of 
Havana, Niepe and Nuevitas, are among the best. The bay 
of Matanzas is also capacious ; Cardenas and the roadstead 
of Sagua la Grande have plenty of water for brigs and 
schooners. Matanzas,* though second to Puerto Principe 

* The first lines of this city were traced on Saturday, the 10th of Octo- 
ber, 1693, by Senor Manzaneda, under whose government it was founded. 
It was named San Carlos Alcazar de Matanzas ; the last word, that by 
which it is known, signifying the slaughter of a battle-field. 



70 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

in point of inhabitants, yet stands next to Havana in com- 
mercial importance, and is said to be much healthier than 
the capital. It is located in a valley in one of the most 
fertile portions of the island, the city extending from the 
flat sea-shore up to the picturesque and verdant heights by 
which the town is surrounded in the form of an amphithea- 
tre. The fortifications are of rather a meagre character. 
The custom-house is the most prominent building which 
strikes the eye on approaching the city by water, and is an 
elegant structure of stone, but one story high, built at the 
early part of the present century. On the heights above 
the city, the inhabitants have planted their country seats, 
and from the bay the whole scene is most delightfully pic- 
turesque. There are two fine churches in Matanzas, and a 
second-class theatre, cockpit, etc. Statistics show the cus- 
tom-house receipts of the port to exceed the large sum of a 
million and a half dollars annually. Besides the railroad 
leading to Havana, there is another leading to the interior 
and bearing southward, of some thirty or forty miles in 
length. On all the Cuban railroads you ride in American- 
built cars, drawn by American-built engines, and conducted 
by American engineers. The back country from Matanzas 
is rich in sugar and coffee plantations. 

Puerto Principe is the capital of the central department 
of the island, and is situated in the interior. The trade of 
the place, from the want of water-carriage, is inconsiderable; 
, and bears no proportion to the number of inhabitants. What 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 71 

ever portion of the produce of Puerto Principe and its im- 
mediate neighborhood is exported, must find its way first to 
Nuevitas, twelve and a half leagues distant, from whence 
it is shipped, and from whence it receives in return its foreign 
supplies. It is situated about one hundred and fifty miles from 
Havana. Its original locality, when founded by Velasquez, 
was Nuevitas, but the inhabitants, when the place was 
feeble in numbers and strength, were forced to remove to 
this distance inland, to avoid the fierce incursions of the 
Buccaneers, who thronged the coast. 

Santiago de Cuba has a noble harbor, and is defended by 
a miniature Moro Castle, being a well-planned fortress after 
the same style, and known as El Moro. This city was 
founded in 1512, and is the capital of the eastern depart- 
ment of the island, but has at various times suffered severely 
from earthquakes, and within a couple of years was visited 
by the cholera, which swept off some five or six thousand of its 
population in about the same number of weeks. Santiago, 
though it now presents many features of decay, and its 
cathedral is closed for fear of disaster occurring if it should 
be occupied, is yet the third city on the island in a commer- 
cial point of view. The immediate neighborhood of the 
city being mountainous and somewhat sterile, produces little 
sugar, but the many fine coffee estates, and several vast cop- 
per mines of uncomputed extent and value, which have 
been worked by English companies, give it much import- 
ance. It is two hundred and thirty leagues from Havana, 
on the south coast. 



72 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Trinidad, situated about a league from Casilda, on the 
south coast, and ninety miles from Havana, is probably 
one of the healthiest and pleasantest locations for invalids 
on the island. It lies at the base of a ridge of mountains 
that protect it from the north wind, and is free from all 
humidity, with that great blessing, good water, at hand, an 
article which unfortunately is very scarce in Cuba. 

Our first view of Moro Castle was gained from the quar- 
ter-deck, after a fifteen days' voyage ; it was just as the sun 
was dipping into the sea, too late for us to enter the harbor, 
for the rules of the port are rigorously observed, and we 
were obliged to stand off and on through the night. At 
early morning our jack was set at the fore as a signal for a 
pilot, and at noon we had answered the rough peremptory 
hail from the castle, and dropped anchor in the safe and 
beautiful harbor of the capital. The scene was absorbingly 
interesting to a stranger. Around us floated the flags of 
many nations, conspicuous among which were the gallant 
stars and stripes. On the one side lay the city, on a low, 
level plain, while the hills that make the opposite side of 
the harbor presented a beautiful picture of the soft green 
sward and the luxuriant verdure that forms the constant 
garb of the tropics. 

As Paris is said to be France, so is Havana Cuba, and its 
history embraces in no small degree that of all the island, 
being the centre of its talent, wealth and population. Every 
visible circumstance proclaims the great importance of the 



HISTORY OF CUBA, 73 

city, even to the most casual observer. Moro Castle * frown- 
ing over the narrow entrance of the harbor, the strong 
battery answering to it on the opposite point, ana known as 
La Punta, the long range of cannon and barracks on the 
city side, the powerful and massive fortress of the Cabanas f 
crowning the hill behind the Moro, all speak unitedly of the 
immense importance of the place. Havana is the heart of 
Cuba, and will never be yielded unless the whole island be 
given up ; indeed, the possessors of this strong-hold command 
the whole Spanish West Indies. The bay, shaped like an 
outspread hand, the wrist for the entrance, is populous with 
the ships of all nations,^ and the city, with its 200,000 
inhabitants, is a depot of wealth and luxury. With an 
enormous extent of public buildings, cathedrals, antique 
and venerable churches and convents, with the palaces of 
nobles and private gentlemen of wealth, all render this cap- 
ital of Cuba probably the richest place for its number of 
square rods in the world. 

Beside the Royal University of Havana, a medical and 
law school, and chairs on all the natural sciences, it contains 
many other institutions of learning. It is true that, in spite 



* Moro Castle was first built in 1633; the present structure was erected 
on the ruins of the first, destroyed by the English in 1762. 

t Built by Charles III., and said to have cost the sum of $7,000,000. 
According to Rev. L. L. Allen's lecture on Cuba, it was more than forty 
years in building. 

$ The port of Havana is one of the best harbors in the world. It has 
a very narrow entrance, but spreads immediately into a vast basin, 
embracing the whole city, and large enough to hold a thousand ships of 
war. — Alexander H. Everett. 

7 



74 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

of their liberal purpose and capability, there is a blight, as 
it were, hanging over them all. Pupils enlist cautiously, 
suffer undue restraint, and in spite of themselves seem to 
feel that there is an unseen influence at work against the 
spirit of these advantages. Among the schools are a Royal 
Seminary for girls, a free school of sculpture and painting. 
a mercantile school, also free, with many private institutions 
of learning, of course not to be compared jn ability or gen- 
eral advantages to like institutions with us. There is a fine 
museum of Natural History, and just outside the city walls 
a very extensive botanical garden. No one, even among 
the islanders, who would be supposed to feel the most pride 
in the subject, will for a moment deny, however, that the 
means for education are very limited in Cuba. An evi- 
dence of this is perceptibly evinced by the fact that the 
sons of the planters are almost universally sent abroad, 
mostly to this country, for educational purposes. An order 
was not long since promulgated, by direction of the home 
government, in which the inhabitants are forbidden to send 
their children to the United States, for the purpose of edu- 
cation. A bold, decided order. 

Of course the reason, for this is quite apparent, and is 
openly acknowledged in Havana, viz: — that these youths, 
during their residence here, adopt liberal ideas and views of 
our republican policy, which become fixed principles with 
them ; nor is there any doubt of this being the case, for 
such students as have thus returned, unhesitatingly (among 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 75 

friends) avow their sentiments, and most ardently express a 
hope for Cuban independence ; and this class, too, upon the 
island are far more numerous than might at first be supposed. 
Those who have been educated in France, Germany, and 
England, seem at once to imbibe the spirit of those youths 
who have returned from the United States, and long before 
there was any open demonstration relative to the first Lopez 
expedition, these sons of the planters had formed themselves 
into a secret society, which is doubtless still sustained, with 
the avowed purpose of exercising its ability and means to 
free Cuba, sooner or later, from the Spanish yoke. 

The city of Havana is surrounded by a high wall and 
ditch, and its gates are always strictly guarded by soldiery, 
no stranger being permitted to pass unchallenged. The 
streets, which are extremely narrow, are all Macadamized, 
and cross each other at right angles, like those of Phila- 
delphia and some other American cities. There are no side- 
walks, unless a narrow line of flag-stones which are level 
with the surface of the street may be so called. Indeed, the 
people have little use for sidewalks, for they drive almost 
universally about town in place of walking, being thus 
borne about in that peculiar vehicle, a volante. A woman 
of respectability is never seen on foot in the streets, and 
this remark, as singular as it may sound to our Broadway 
and Washington-street belles, is applicable even to the hum- 
blest classes ; unless, indeed, it be the fruit women from the 
country, with their baskets richly laden upon their heads, 



76 HISTORY OP CUBA. 

while they cry the names of their tempting burdens in the 
long drawling Spanish style. 

The architecture of the city houses is exceedingly heavy, 
giving to them an appearance of great age. They are con- 
structed so as almost universally to form squares in their 
centres, which constitutes the only yard which the house 
can have, and upon which the lofty arches of the corridor 
look down. The lower story is always occupied as store- 
room, kitchen, and stable, (think of a suite of drawing-rooms 
over a stable !) while the universal volante blocks up in 
part the only entrance to the house. From this inner 
court-yard a wide flight of steps leads to the second story, 
from the corridor of which all the rooms open, giving them 
an opening front and rear on two sides at least. As pecu- 
liar as this mode of building may seem, it is nevertheless 
well adapted to the climate, and one becomes exceedingly 
well satisfied with the arrangement. 

An air of rude grandeur reigns over all the structure, 
the architecture being mainly Gothic and Saracenic. The 
rooms are all lofty, and the floors are stuccoed or tiled, 
while the walls and ceilings are frequently ornamented in 
fresco, the excellence of the workmanship of course varying 
in accordance with the owner's or occupant's means, and 
his ability to procure an artist of high or mediocre talent. 
But the most striking peculiarity of the town house in 
Cuba, is the great care taken to render it safe against 
assault. Every man's house is literally his castle here. 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 77 

each accessible window being barricaded with iron bars, 
while large massive folding doors secure the entrance to the 
house, being bullet proof and of immense strength. No 
carpets are seen here, and from the neighboring Isle of 
Pines, which lies off the southern shore of Cuba, a thick 
slate is found, also marble and jasper of various colors, 
which are cut in squares, and form the general material for 
floors in the dwelling-houses. The heat of the climate ren- 
ders carpets, or even wooden floors, quite insupportable, and 
they are very rarely to be found. 

We have said that the Creole ladies never stir abroad 
except in the national volante, and whatever their domestic 
habits may be, they are certainly, in this respect, good house- 
keepers. A Cuban belle could never, we fancy, be made 
to understand the pleasures of that most profitless of all 
employments, spinning street-yarn. While our ladies are 
busily engaged in sweeping the sidewalks of Chestnut-street 
and Broadway with their silk flounces, she wisely leaves 
that business to the gangs of criminals who perform the 
office with their limbs chained, and a ball attached to preserve 
their equilibrium. It is perhaps in part owing to these 
habits that the feet of the Cuban senorita are such a marvel 
of smallness and delicacy, seemingly made rather for orna- 
ment than for use. She knows the charm of the petit pied 
Men chausse that delights the Parisian, and accordingly, as 
you catch a glimpse of it, as she steps into the volante, you 
perceive that it is daintily shod in a French slipper, the 
7* 



78 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

sole of which is scarcely more substantial in appearance than 
writing paper. * 

The feet of the Havana ladies are made for ornament 
and for dancing. Though with a roundness of figure that 
leaves nothing to be desired in symmetry of form, yet they 
are light as a sylph, clad in muslin and lace, so languid 
and light that it would seem as if a breeze might waft them 
away like a summer cloud. They are passionately fond of 
dancing, and tax the endurance of the gentlemen in their 
heroic worship of Terpsichore. Inspired by the thrilling 
strains of those Cuban airs, which are at once so sweet and 
brilliant, they glide or whirl through the mazes of the 
dance hour after hour, until daylight breaks upon the 
scer.e of fairy revel. Then, " exhausted but not satiated," 
they betake themselves to sleep, to dream of the cadences of 
some Cuban Strauss, and to beat time in imagination to the 
lively notes, and to dream over the soft words and winning 
glarces they have exchanged. 

Beautiful as eastern houris, there is a striking and endear- 
ing charm about the Cuban ladies, their very motion being 
replete with a native grace ; every limb elastic and supple. 
Their voices are sweet and low, " an excellent thing in wo- 
man," and the subdued tone of their complexions is relieved 
by the arch vivacity of night-black eyes that alternately 



* " Her hands and feet are as small and delicate as those of a child. 
She wears the finest satin slippers, with scarcely any soles, which, luckily, 
are never destined to touch the street." — Countess Merlin's Letters. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 79 

swim in melting lustre or sparkle in expressive glances. 
Their costume is never ostentatious, though costly ; the 
most delicate muslin, the finest linen, the richest silk, the 
most exquisitely made satin shoes, — these, of course, render 
their chaste attire exceedingly expensive: There are no 
" strong-minded " women among them, nor is it hardly 
possible to conceive of any extremity that could induce 
them to get up a woman's right convention — a suspension 
of fans and volantes might produce such a phenomenon, but 
we very much doubt it. 

The Creole ladies lead a life of decided ease and pleasure. 
What little work they do is very light and lady -like, a little 
sewing or embroidery ; the bath and the siesta divide the 
sultry hours of the day. They wait until nearly sun-set 
for the drive in the dear volante, and then go to respond by 
sweet smiles to the salutations of the caballeros on the 
Paseoes, and after the long twilight to the Plaza de Armas, 
to listen to the governor's military band, and then perhaps 
to join the mazy dance. Yet they are capable of deep and 
high feeling, and when there was a prospect of the liberation 
of the island, these fair patriots it will be remembered gave 
their most precious jewels and ornaments as a contribution 
to the glorious cause of liberty. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Contrast between Protestant and Catholic communities — Catholic 
churches — Sabbath scenes in Havana — Devotion of the common peo- 
ple — The Plaza de Armas — City squares — The poor man's opera 
— Influence of music — La Dominica — The Tacon Paseo — The Tacon 
Theatre — The Cathedral — Tomb of Columbus over the altar — Story 
of the great Genoese pilot — His death — Removal of remains — The 
former great wealth of the church in Cuba — Influence of the priests. 

On no occasion is the difference between the manners of a 
Protestant and Catholic community so strongly marked as 
on the Sabbath. In the former, a sober seriousness stamps 
the deportment of the people, even when they are not en- 
gaged in devotional exercises ; in the latter, worldly pleas- 
ures and religious exercises are pursued as it were at the 
same time, or follow each other in incongruous succession. 
The Parisian flies from the church to the railway station, 
to take a pleasure excursion into the country, or passes with 
careless levity from St. Genevieve to the Jardin Mabille ; 
in New Orleans, the Creole, who has just bent his knee before 
the altar, repairs to the French opera, and the Cuban from 
the blessing of the priest to the parade in the Plaza. Even 
the Sunday ceremonial of the church is a pageant ; the 
splendid robe of the officiating priest, changed in the course 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 81 

of the offices, like the costumes of actors in a drama; the 
music, to Protestant . ears operatic and exciting ; the clouds 
of incense that scatter their intoxicating perfumes ; the chants 
in a strange tongue, unknown to the mass of worshippers ; — 
all these give the services a holiday and carnival character.* 
Far be it from us to charge these congregations with any 
undue levity ; many a lovely Creole kneels upon the marble 
floor, entirely estranged from the brilliant groups around 
her, and unconscious for the time of the admiration she 
excites ; many a caballero bows in reverence, forgetful, for 
the time being, of the bright eyes that are too often the 
load-star of attraction to the church ; and there are very 
many who look beyond the glittering symbols to the great 
truths and the great Being they are intended to typify. 
But we fear that a large portion of the community who 
thus worship, attach more importance to the representation 
than to the principles or things represented. The impres- 
sion made by the Sabbath ceremonies of the church strikes 
us as evanescent, and as of such a character as to be at once 
obliterated by the excitement of the worldly pleasures that 
follow. Still, if the Sabbath in Catholic countries be not 
wholly devoted to religious observances, neither are the 
week days wholly absorbed by business and pleasure. The 
churches and chapels are always open, silently but elo- 

* The influence of fifteen minutes in the church, if salutary, seems soon 
dissipated by the business and amusements without its walls. The shops 
are open ; the cock-pit fuller than on busier days of the week ; and the 
streets thronged with volantes ; the theatres and ball rooms crowded ; 
and the city devoted to pleasure. — Rev. Abiel Abbot's Letters. 



82 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

quently inviting to devotion ; and it is much to be able to 
step aside, at any moment, from the temptations, business 
and cares of life, into an atmosphere of seclusion and re- 
ligion. The solemn quiet of an old cathedral on a week- 
day is impressive from its very contrast with the tumult 
outside. 

Within its venerable walls the light seems chastened as it 
falls through storied panes, and paints the images of Chris- 
tian saints and martyrs on the cold pavement of the aisles. 
Who can tell how many a tempest-tossed soul has found 
relief and strength from the ability to withdraw itself at 
once from the intoxicating whirl of the world and expand in 
prayer in one of these hospitable and ever open sanctuaries 2 
The writer is a firm Protestant, by education, by association 
and feeKng, but he is not so bigoted as not to see features 
in the Catholic system worthy of commendation. Whether 
the Catholic church has accomplished its mission, and ex- 
hausted its means of good, is a question open to discussion, 
but that in the past it has achieved much for the cause of 
true religion cannot be denied. Through the darkest period 
in the history of the world, it was the lamp that guided to 
a higher civilization, and the bulwark of the people against 
the crushing force of feudalism ; and with all the objections 
which it discovers to a Protestant eye, it still preserves many 
beautiful customs. 

The Sabbath in Havana breaks upon the citizens amid 
the ringing of bells from the different convents and churches. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 83 

the firing of cannon from the forts andjvessels, the noise of 
trumpets, and the roll of the drum. JSunday is no day of 
physical rest here. The stores are open as usual, the same 
cries are heard in the streets, and the lottery tickets are^ 
vended as ever at each corner. The individual who devotes 
himself to this business rends the air with his cries of temp- 
tation to the passing throng, each one of whom he earnestly 
assures is certain to realize enormous pecuniary returns by 
the smallest investment, in tickets, or portions of tickets, 
which he holds in sheets, while he brandishes a huge pair 
of scissors, ready to cut in any desired proportion. The 
day* proves no check to the omnipresent " organ grinders," 
the monkey shows, and other characteristic scenes/"? How 
unlike a New England Sabbath is all this, how discordant 
to the feelings of one who has been brought up amid our 
Puritanic customs of the sacred day ! And yet the people 
of Havana seem to be impressed with no small degree of 
reverence for the Catholic faith. The rough Montero from 
the country, with his long line of loaded mules, respectfully 
raises his panama with one hand, while he makes the sign 
of the cross with the other, as he passes the church. The 
calisero or postilion, who dashes by with his master in the 
volante, does not forget, in his hurry, to bend to the pommel 
of his saddle ; and even the little negro slave children may 
be observed to fold their arms across their breasts and remain 
reverentially silent until they have passed its doors. 

The city abounds in beautifully arranged squares, orna- 



84 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

merited by that king of the tropical forest, the Royal Palm, 
with here and there a few orange trees, surrounded by a 
luxuriant hedge of limes. The largest and most beautiful 
of these squares is the Plaza de Armas, fronting which is 
the Governor's palace, and about which are the massive 
stone barracks of the Spanish army. This square is sur- 
rounded by an iron railing and divided into beautiful walks, 
planted on either side with gaudy flowers, and shadowed by 
oranges and palms, while a grateful air of coolness is diffused 
around by the playing of a copious fountain into a large 
stone basin, surmounted by a marble statue of Ferdinand. 
Public squares, parks and gardens, are the lungs of great 
cities, and their value increases as the population becomes 
dense. Heap story upon story of costly marble, multiply 
magazines and palaces, yet neglect to provide, in their midst, 
some glimpse of nature, some opening for the light and 
air of heaven, and the costliest and most sumptuous of cities 
would prove but a dreary dwelling-place. The eye wearies, 
in time, of the glories of art, but of the gifts of nature 
never, and in public squares and gardens both may be hap- 
pily combined. 

Human culture brings trees, shrubs and flowers to their 
fullest development, fosters and keeps green the emerald 
sward, and brings the bright leaping waters into the midst 
of the graces of nature. Nowhere does a beautiful statue 
look more beautiful than when erected in a frame-work of 
deep foliage. These public squares are the most attractive 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 85 

features of cities. Take from London Hyde Park, from 
Paris the Champs Elysees and the Tuilleries gardens, the 
Battery and the Park from New York, and the Common 
from Boston, and they would be but weary wildernesses of 
brick, stone and mortar. The enlightened corporation that 
bestows on a young city the gift of a great park, to be en- 
joyed in common forever, does more for posterity than if it 
raised the most sumptuous columns and palaces for public 
use or display. 

The Plaza de Armas of Havana is a living evidence of 
this, and is the nightly resort of all who can find time to be 
there, while the governor's military band performs always 
from seven to nine o'clock. The Creoles call it "the poor 
man's opera," it being free to all ; every class resorts hither: 
and even the ladies, leaving their volantes, sometimes walk 
with husband or brother within the precincts of the Plaza. 
We are told that " the man who has not music in his soul 
is fit for treason, stratagem and spoils." It is undoubtedly 
from motives of policy that the Havanese authorities pro- 
vide this entertainment for the people. How ungrateful it 
would be to overthrow a governor whose band performs such 
delightful polkas, overtures and marches; and yet, it re- 
quires some circumspection for the band-master to select 
airs for a Creole audience. It would certainly never do to 
give them " Yankee Doodle;" their sympathies with the 
u Norte Americanos" are sufficiently lively without any 
such additional stimulus ; and it is well for the authorities 



86 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

to have a care, for the power of national airs is almost in- 
credible. It was found necessary, in the times of the old 
Bourbons, to forbid the performance of the " Ranz des 
Vaches" because it so filled the privates of the Swiss 
guards with memories of their native home that they de- 
serted in numbers. The Scotch air of " Lochaber no more " 
was found to have the same effect upon the Highland regi- 
ments in Canada ; and we are not sure that " Yankee Doo- 
dle," performed in the presence of a thousand Americans 
on the Plaza de Armas, would not secure the annexation of 
the island in a fortnight. 

The Creoles are passionately fond of music. Their fa- 
vorite airs, besides the Castilian ones, are native dances, 
which have much sweetness and individuality of character. 
They are fond of the guitar and flageolet, and are often 
proficients in their use, as well as possessing fine vocal 
powers. The voice is cultivated among the gentlemen as often 
as with the ladies. Music in the open air and in the evening 
has an invincible effect everywhere, but nowhere is its in- 
fluence more deeply felt than in a starry tropical night. 
Nowhere can we conceive of a musical performance listened 
to with more delightful relish than in the Plaza at Havana, 
as discoursed by the governor's band, at the close of the 
long tropical twilight. 

In the immediate neighborhood of the Plaza, near the 
rear of the governor's palace, is a superb confectionary, — 
really one of the notabilities of the city, and only excelled 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 87 

by Taylor's saloon, Broadway, New York. It is called La 
Dominica, and is the popular resort of all foreigners in 
Havana, and particularly of Americans and Frenchmen. It 
is capable of accommodating some hundreds of visitors at 
a time, and is generally well filled every afternoon and eve- 
ning. ' In the centre is a large open court, paved with white 
marble and jasper, and containing a fountain in the middle, 
around which the visitors are seated. Probably no estab- 
lishment in the world can supply a larger variety of pre- 
serves, bon-bons and confectionaries generally, than this, the 
fruits of the island supplying the material for nearly a hun- 
dred varieties of preserves, which the proprietor exports 
largely to Europe and America, and has thereby accumu- 
lated for himself a fortune. 

Following the street on which is this famous confectionary, 
one is soon brought to the city walls, and, passing outside, 
is at once ushered into the Tacon Paseo, where all the beauty 
and fashion of the town resort in the after part of the day. 
It is a mile or more in length, beautifully laid out in wide, 
clean walks, with myriads of tropical flowers, trees and 
shrubs, whose fragrance seems to render the atmosphere 
almost dense. Here the ladies in their volantes, and the 
gentlemen mostly on foot, pass and repass each other in a 
sort of circular drive, gayly saluting, the ladies with a co- 
quettish flourish of the fan, the gentlemen with a graceful 
wave of the hand. 

In these grounds is situated the famous Tacon Theatre. 



88 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

In visiting the house, you enter the first tier and parquette 
from the level of the Paseo, and find the interior about 
twice as large as any theatre in this country, and about 
equal in capacity to Tripler Hall, New York, or the Music 
Hall, Boston. It has five tiers of boxes, and a parquette 
with seats, each separate, like an arm-chair, for six hun- 
dred persons. The lattice-work in front of each box is 
light and graceful, of gilt ornament, and so open that the 
dresses and pretty feet of the senoras are seen to the best 
advantage. The decorations are costly, and the frescoes and 
side ornaments of the proscenium exceedingly beautiful. A 
magnificent cut-glass chandelier, lighted with gas, and 
numerous smaller ones extending from the boxes, give a 
brilliant light to this elegant house. At the theatre the 
military are always in attendance in strong force, as at all 
gatherings in Cuba, however unimportant, their only per- 
ceptible use, however, being to impede the passages, and 
stare the ladies out of countenance. The only other noted 
place of amusement is the Italian opera-house, within the 
city walls, an oven-shaped building externally, but within 
appropriately and elegantly furnished with every necessary 
appurtenance. 

No object in Havana will strike the visitor with more of 
interest than the cathedral, situated in the Calle de Ignacio. 
Its towers and pillared front of defaced and moss-grown 
stone call back associations of centuries gone by. This 
cathedral, like all of the Catholic churches, is elaborately 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 89 

ornamented with many fine old paintings of large size and 
immense value. The entire dome is also decorated with 
paintings in fresco. The chief object of interest, however, 
and which will not fail to attract the attention, is a tablet 
of marble inlaid in the wall at the right of the altar, hav- 
ing upon its face the image of Christopher Columbus, and 
forming the entrance to the tomb where rest the ashes of 
this discoverer of a western world ; here, too, are the iron 
chains with which an ungrateful sovereign once loaded him. 
How great the contrast presented to the mind between those 
chains and the reverence bestowed upon this tomb ! * 

The story of the great Genoese possesses a more thrill- 
ing interest than any narrative which the imagination of 
poet or romancer has ever conceived. The tales of the Ara- 
bian Nights, with all their wealth of fancy, are insipid and 
insignificant compared with the authentic narrative of the 
adventures of the Italian mariner and his sublime discov- 
ery. Familiar as we are with it from childhood, from the 
greatness of the empire he gave to Christendom, the tale 
has still a fascination, however often repeated, while the 
visible memorials of his greatness and his trials revive all 
our veneration for his intellect and all our interest in the 
story of his career. His name flashes a bright ray over the 



* There is now being completed, at Genoa, an elaborate and most classi- 
cal monument to the memory of Columbus. The work has been entrusted 
to a Genoese, a pupil of Canova ; and, according to Prof. Silliman, who 
visited it in 1851, promises to be " one of the noblest of historical records 
ever sculptured in marble." 

8* 



90 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

mental darkness of the period in which he lived, for men 
generally were then but just awakening from the dark sleep 
of the middle ages. The discovery of printing heralded 
the new birth of the republic of letters, and maritime en- 
terprise received a vigorous impulse. The shores of the 
Mediterranean, thoroughly explored and developed, had en- 
dowed the Italian states with extraordinary wealth, and 
built up a very respectable mercantile marine, considering 
the period. The Portuguese mariners were venturing far- 
ther and farther from the peninsula ports, and traded with 
different stations on the coast of Africa. 

But to the west lay what men supposed to be an illimit- 
able ocean, full of mystery, peril and death. A vague con- 
ception that islands, hitherto unknown, might be met with 
afar off on that strange wilderness of waters, like oases in 
a desert, was entertained by some minds, but no one thought 
of venturing in quest of them. Columbus alone, regarded 
merely as a brave and intelligent seaman and pilot, con- 
ceived the idea that the earth was spherical, and that the 
East Indies, the great El Dorado of the century, might be 
reached by circumnavigating the globe. If we picture to 
ourselves the mental condition of the age, -and the state of 
science, we shall find no difficulty in conceiving the scorn 
and incredulity with which the theory of Columbus was 
received. We shall not wonder that he was regarded as a 
madman or as a fool ; we are not surprised to remember 
that he encountered repulse upon repulse, as he journeyed 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 91 

wearily from court to court, and pleaded in vain for aid to 
the sovereigns of Europe and wise men of the cloister. But 
the marvel is that when gate after gate was closed against 
him, when all ears were deaf to his patient importunities, 
when day by day the opposition to his views increased, when, 
weary and foot-sore, he was forced to beg a morsel of bread 
and a cup of water for his fainting and famished boy, at 
the door of a Spanish convent, his reason did not give way, 
and his great heart did not break beneath its weight of dis- 
appointment. 

But his soul was then as firm and steadfast as when, 
launched in his frail caravel upon the ocean, he pursued 
day after day, and night after night, amidst a discontented, 
murmuring, and mutinous crew, his westward path over the 
trackless waters. We can conceive of his previous sorrows, 
but what imagination can form an adequate conception of 
his hopefulness and gratitude when the tokens of the neigh- 
borhood of land first greeted his senses ; of his high enthu- 
siasm when the shore was discovered ; of his noble rapture 
when the keel of his bark grounded on the shore of San 
Salvador, and he planted the royal standard in the soil, the 
Viceroy and High* Admiral of Spain in the New World ! 
No matter what chanced thereafter, a king's favor or a 
king's displeasure, royal largesses. or royal chains, — that 
moment of noble exultation was worth a long lifetime of 
trials. Such were our thoughts before the cathedral altar, 
gazing on his consecrated tomb, and thus suggestive will the 



92 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

visitor be sure to find this memorial of the great captain 
amid its sombre surroundings.* 

It will be remembered that Columbus died in Valladolid, 
in 1506. In 1513 his remains were transferred to Seville, 
preparatory to their being sent, as desired in his will, to St. 
Domingo. When that island was ceded to France, the 
remains were delivered to the Spaniards. This was in 1796. 
one hundred and three years after they had been placed 
there ; they were then brought with great pomp to Havana, 
in a national ship, and were deposited in the cathedral in 
the presence of all the high authorities. The church itself, 
aside from this prominent feature of interest, is vastly at- 
tractive from its ancient character and appearance, and one 
lingers with mysterious delight and thoughtfulness among 
its marble aisles and confessionals. 

The wealth of the church and of the monks in Cuba was 
formerly proverbial, but of late years the major portion of 
the rich perquisites which they were so long permitted to 
receive, have been diverted in their course, so as to flow into 
the coffers of the crown. The priests at one time possessed 
large tracts of the richest soil of the island, and their rev- 
enue from these plantations was immense ; but these lands 
were finally confiscated by the government, and, with the 
loss of their property, the power of the monks has also 
declined, and they themselves diminished in numbers. Two 

* The reward of genius is rarely cotemporary, and even posterity is fre- 
quently most remiss in its justice. " Sebastian Cabot gave England a 
continent," says Bancroft, " and no one knows his burial-place ! " 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 93 

of their large establishments, St. Augustine and St. Domin- 
go, have been converted into government storehouses, and 
the large convent of San Juan de Dios is now used solely 
for a hospital. Formerly the streets were thronged by 
monks, but now they are only occasionally seen, with their 
sombre dress and large shovel hats. 

The character of this class of men has of former years 
been a scandal to the island, and the stories that are told by 
respectable people concerning them are really unfit for 
print. They led lives N of the most unlimited profligacy, 
and they hesitated not to defy every law, moral or divine. 
.For a long period this existed, but Tacon and subsequent 
governors-general, aroused to a sense of shame, made the 
proper representations to the home government, and put a 
stop to their excesses. Many persons traced the bad condi- 
tion of public morals and the increase of crime just previous 
to Tacon' s governorship directly to this ruling influence. 

A fearful condition when those who assume to lead in 
spiritual affairs proved the fountain-head of crime upon the 
island, themselves the worst of criminals. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Nudity of children and slaves — The street of the merchants — The cur- 
rency of Cuba — The Spanish army in the island — Enrolment of 
blacks — Courage of Spanish troops — Treatment by the government — 
Thegarrote— A military execution — The market-men and their wares 
. — The milk-man and his mode of supply — Glass windows — Curtains 
for doors — The Campo Santo, or burial-place of Havana — Treatment 
of the dead — The prison — The fish-market of the capital. 

One peculiarity which is certain to strike the stranger 
from the first hour he lands upon the island, whether in 
public or private houses, in the stores or in the streets, is 
that the young slaves, of both sexes, under the age of eight 
or ten years, are permitted to go about in a state of perfect 
nudity ; while the men of the same class, who labor in the 
streets, wear only a short pair of pantaloons, without any 
other covering to the body, thus displaying their brawny 
muscles at every movement. This causes rather a shock to 
the ideas of propriety entertained by an American ; but it 
is thought nothing of by the "natives." On the planta- 
tions inland, the slaves of either sex wear but just enough 
clothes to appear decently. The almost intolerable heat 
when exposed to field-labor is the excuse for this, a broad 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 95 

palm-leaf hat being the only article that the negroes seem 
to desire to wear in the field. 

The Calle de Mercaderes, or the street of the merchants, 
is the Broadway and Washington Street of Havana, and 
contains many fine stores for the sale of dry goods, china, 
jewelry, glass-ware, etc. The merchant here does not 
designate his store by placing his own name on his sign, 
but, on the contrary, adopts some fancy title, such as the 
" America," the " Star," the " Bomb," " Virtue," and 
the like ; which titles are paraded in golden letters over the 
doors. These tradesmen are, generally speaking, thorough 
Jews in their mode of dealing, and no one thinks of paving 
the first price asked by them for an article, as they usually 
make allowances for being beaten down at least one half. 
The ladies commonly make their purchases in the after 
part of the day, stopping in their volantes at the doors of 
the shops, from which the articles they desire to examine 
are brought to them by the shopmen. No lady enters a 
shop to make a purchase, any more than she would be found 
walking in the streets. 

There is no paper money known on the island, so that 
all transactions at these stores must be consummated in 
specie. The coin generally in use is the Spanish and 
Mexican dollar, half and quarter dollars, pesetas, or twenty- 
cent pieces, and reals de plata, equal to our twelve-and-a- 
half cent pieces, or York shillings. The gold coin is the 
doubloon and its fractions. Silver is always scarce, and 



96 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

held at a premium in Havana, say from two to five per cent. 
As Cuba has no regular bank, the merchant draws on his 
foreign credit altogether, each mercantile house becoming 
its own sub-treasury, supplied with the largest and best of 
iron safes. The want of some legitimate banking system is 
severely felt here, and is a prominent subject of complaint 
with all foreign merchants. 

The Spanish government supports a large army on the 
island, which is under the most rigid discipline, and in a 
state of considerable efficiency. It is the policy of the 
home government to fill the ranks with natives of old Spain, 
in order that no undue sympathy may be felt for the Creoles. 
ar islanders, in case of insurrection or attempted revolution. 
An order has recently been issued by Pezuela, the present 
governor-general, for the enrolment of free blacks and 
mulattoes in the ranks of the army, and the devotion of 
these people to Spain is loudly vaunted in the captain-gen- 
eral's proclamation. The enlistment of people of color in 
the ranks is a deadly insult offered to the white population 
of a slave-holding country, — a sort of shadowing forth of 
the menace, more than once thrown ou£ by Spain, to the 
effect that if the colonists should ever attempt a revolution, 
she would free and arm the blacks, and Cuba, made to 
repeat the tragic tale of St. Domingo, should be useless to 
the Creoles if lost to Spain. But we think Spain overesti- 
mates the loyalty of the free people of color whom she 
would now enroll beneath her banner. They cannot forget 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 97 

the days of O'Donneli (governor-general), when he avenged 
the opposition of certain Cubans to the illicit and infamous 
slave-trade by -which he was enriching himself, by charging 
them with an abolition conspiracy in conjunction with the 
free blacks and mulattoes, and put many of the latter to 
the torture to make them confess imaginary crimes ; while 
others, condemned without a trial, were mowed down by the 
fire of platoons. Assuredly the people of color have no 
reason for attachment to the -paternal government of Spain. 
And in this connection we may also remark that this 
attempt at the enrolment of the blacks has already proved, 
according to the admission of Spanish authority, a partial 
failure, for they cannot readily learn the drill, and officers /y 
dislike to take command of companies, w 

We have remarked that the Spanish troops are in a state 
of rigid discipline, and exhibit much efficiency. They are to 
the eye firm and serviceable troops, — the very best, doubt- 
less, that Spain can produce ; but it must be remembered 
that Spanish valor is but a feeble shadow of what it was in 
the days of the Cid and the middle ages. A square of 
Spanish infantry was once as impregnable as the Macedo- 
nian phalanx ; but they have sadly degenerated. The 
actual value of the Spanish troops in Cuba may be esti- 
mated by their behavior in the Lopez invasion. They 
were then called upon, not to cope with a well-appointed 
and equal force, but with an irregular, undisciplined band 
of less than one-fourth their number, armed with wretched 
9 



98 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

muskets, entirely ignorant of the simplest tactics, thrown 
on a strange shore, and taken bj surprise. Yet nearly a 
full regiment of infantry, perfectly drilled and equipped, 
flank companies, commanded by a general who was styled 
the Napoleon of Cuba, were driven from the field by a few 
irregular volleys from their opponents. And when again 
the same commanding officer brought a yet greater force of 
every arm, — cavalry, rifles, infantry and artillery, — against 
the same body of insurgents, fatigued and reduced in num- 
bers and arms, they were again disgracefully routed. What 
dependence can be placed upon such troops'? They are 
only capable of overawing an unarmed population. 

The Cubans seem to fear very little from the power or 
efforts of the Spanish troops in connection with the idea of 
any well-organized revolutionary attempt, and even count 
(as they have good reason to do) upon their abandoning the 
Spanish flag the moment there is a doubt of its success. 
They say that the troops are enlisted in Spain either by 
glowing pictures of the luxury and ease of a military life 
in Cuba, or to escape the severity of justice for the commis- 
sion of some crime. They no sooner arrive in the island 
than the deception of the recruiting sergeants becomes 
glaringly apparent. They see themselves isolated com- 
pletely from the people, treated with the utmost cruelty in 
the course of their drills, and oppressed by the weight of 
regulations that reduce them to the condition of machines. 
without any enjoyments to alleviate the wretchedness of 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 99 

their situation. Men thus treated are not to be relied upon 
in time of emergency ; they can think, if they are not per- 
mitted to act, and will have opinions of their own. 

Soldiers thus ruled naturally come to hate those in 
authority over them, finding no redress for their wrongs, 
and no sympathy for their troubles. Their immediate offi- 
cers and those higher in station are equally inaccessible to 
them, and deaf to their complaints ; and when, in the hour 
of danger, they are called upon to sustain the government 
which so cruelly oppresses them, and proclamations, abound- 
ing in Spanish hyperbole, speak of the honor and glory of 
the Spanish army and its attachment to the crown, they 
know perfectly well that these declarations and flatteries 
proceed from the lips of men who entertain no such senti- 
ments in their hearts, and who only come to Cuba to 
oppress a people belonging to the same Spanish family as 
themselves. Thus the despotic system of the Spanish offi- 
cers, combined with the complete isolation of the troops 
from the Creole population, has an effect directly contrary 
to that contemplated, and only creates a readiness on the 
part of the troops to sympathize with the people they are 
brought to oppress. The constant presence of a large mili- 
tary force increases the discontent and indignation of the 
Creoles. They know perfectly well its object, and regard 
it as a perpetual insult, a bitter, ironical commentary on the 
epithet of " ever faithful " with which the home govern- 
ment always addresses its western vassal. The loyalty of 



(< 



100 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Cuba is indeed a royal fiction. As well might a highway- 
man praise the generosity of a rich traveller who surren- 
ders his purse, watch and diamonds, at the muzzle of the 
pistol. Cuban loyalty is evinced in an annual tribute of 
some twenty-four millions of hard money ; the freedom of 
the gift is proved by the perpetual presence of twenty-five 
to thirty thousand men, armed to the teeth ! * 
$ The complete military force of Cuba must embrace at the 
present time very nearly thirty thousand troops, — artillery, 
dragoons and infantry, — nearly twenty thousand of which 
force is in and about Havana. To keep such a body of 
soldiers in order, when governed by the principles we have 
described, the utmost rigor is necessary, and military execu- 
tions are very frequent. The garrote is the principal 
instrument of capital punishment used in the island, — a 
machine contrived to choke the victim to death without 
suspending him in the air. The criminal is placed in a 
chair, leaning his head back upon a support prepared for it, 
when a neck-yoke or collar of iron is drawn up close to the 
throat. At the appointed moment, a screw is turned behind, 
producing instantaneous death, the spinal cord being crushed 
where it unites with the brain. This, though a repulsive 



* " Can it be for the interest of Spain to cling to a possession that can 
only be maintained by a garrison of twenty-five thousand or thirty thou- 
sand troops, a powerful naval force, and an annual expenditure, for both 
arms of the service, of at least twelve million dollars ? Cuba, at this 
moment, costs more to Spain than the entire naval and military establish- 
ment of the United States costs the federal government." — Edward 
Everett, on the tri-partite treaty proposition. 



H1ST0KY OF CUBA. 101 

idea, is far more merciful than hanging, it would seem, 
whereby life is destroyed by the lingering process of suffo- 
cation. The most common mode of execution, however, 
in the army, is the legitimate death of a soldier; and, when 
he is condemned, he always falls by the hands of his com- 
rades. 

The writer witnessed one of these military executions in 
the rear of the barracks that make the seaward side of the 
Plaza de Armas, one fine summer's morning. It was a 
fearful sight, and one that chilled the blood even in a tropical 
summer day ! A Spanish soldier of the line was to be shot 
for some act of insubordination against the stringent army 
rules and regulations ; and, in order that the punishment 
might have a salutary effect upon his regiment, the whole 
were drawn up to witness the scene. The immediate file of 
twelve men to which the prisoner had belonged when in the 
ranks, were supplied with muskets by their officer, and I 
was told that one musket was left without ball, so that each 
one might hope that his was not the hand to slay his former 
comrade, and yet a sense of mercy would cause them all to 
aim at the heart. The order was given ; the bright morn- 
ing sun shone like living fire along the polished barrels of 
the guns, as the fatal muzzles all ranged in point at the 
heart of the condemned. " Fuego ! " (fire) said the com- 
manding ofiicer. A report followed, accompanied by a 
cloud of smoke, which the sea breeze soon dispersed, show- 
ing us the still upright form of the victim. Though 
9* 



102 HISTORY OF CUIM. 

wounded in many places, no vital part was touched, nor did 
lie fall until his sergeant, advancing quickly, with a single 
reserved shot blew his brains over the surrounding green- 
sward ! His body was immediately removed, the troops 
were formed into companies, the band struck up a lively 
air. and thus was a human being launched into eternity. 

A very common sight in the cities or large towns of Cuba, 
early in the morning, is to meet a Montero from the country, 
riding his donkey, to the tail of which another donkey is 
tied, and to this second one's tail a third, and so on, up to 
a dozen, or less. These animals are loaded with large pan- 
niers, filled with various articles of produce ; some bearing 
cornstalks for food for city animals ; some hay, or straw ; 
others oranges, or bananas, or cocoanuts, etc. ; some with 
bunches of live fowls hanging by the feet over the donkey's 
back. The people live, to use a common phrase, " from 
hand to mouth," — that is, they lay in no stores whatever, 
and trust to the coming day to supply its own necessities. 
Hay, cornstalks, or grain, are purchased only in sufficient 
quantity for the day's consumption. So with meats, so 
with fruits, so with everything. When it is necessary to 
send to the market, the steward or stewardess, of the house, 
always a negro man or woman, is freely entrusted with the 
required sum, and purchases according to his or her judg- 
ment and taste. The cash system is universally adopted, 
and all articles are regularly paid for when purchased. 
The Monteros, who thus bring their produce to market. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 103 

wear broad palm-leaf hats, and striped shirts over brown 
pantaloons, with a sword by their side, and heavy spurs 
upon their heels. Their load once disposed of, with a strong 
cigar lighted in their mouths, they trot back to the country 
again to pile up the panniers, and on the morrow once more 
to supply the wants of the town. They are an industrious 
and manly race of yeomanry. 

Few matters strike the observant stranger with a stronger 
sense of their peculiarity than the Cuban milk-man's mode 
of supplying that necessary aliment to his town or city cus- 
tomers. He has no cart filled with shining cans, and they 
in turn filled with milk (or what purports to be milk, but 
which is apt strongly to savor of Cochituate or Croton), 
so there can be no deception as to the genuine character of 
the article which he supplies. Driving his sober kine from 
door to door, he deliberately milks just the quantity required 
by each customer, delivers it, and drives on to the next. 
The patient animal becomes as conversant with the residence 
of her master's customers as he is himself, and stops unbid- 
den at regular intervals before the proper houses, often fol- 
lowed by a pretty little calf which amuses itself by gazing at 
the process, while it wears a leather muzzle to prevent its 
interference with the supply of milk intended for another 
quarter. There are doubtless two good reasons for this 
mode of delivering milk in Havana and the large towns of 
Cuba. First, there can be no diluting of the article, and 
second, it is sure to be sweet and fresh, this latter a parti- 



104 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

cular desideratum in a climate where milk without ice can 
be kept only a brief period without spoiling. Of course, 
the effect upon the animal is by no means salutary, and a 
Cuban cow gives but about one third as much milk as 'our 
own. Goats are driven about and milked in the same manner. 
Glass windows are scarcely known even in the cities. The 
finest as well as the humblest town houses have the broad 
projecting window, secured only by heavy iron bars (most 
prison-like in aspect), through which, as one passes along 
the narrow streets, it is nearly impossible to avoid glancing 
upon domestic scenes that exhibit the female portion of the 
family engaged in sewing, chatting, or some simple occupa- 
tion. Sometimes a curtain intervenes, but even this is un- 
usual, the freest circulation of air being always courted in 
every way.* Once inside of the dwelling houses there are 
few doors, curtains alone shutting off the communication 
between chambers and private rooms, and from the corridor 
upon which they invariably open. Of course, the curtain 
when down is quite sufficient to keep out persons of the 
household or strangers, but the little naked negro slave 
children (always petted at this age), male and female, creep 
under this ad libitum, and the monkeys, parrots, pigeons, 
and fowls generally make common store of every nook and 
corner. Doors might keep these out of your room, but 

* " Doors and windows are all open. The eye penetrates the whole in- 
terior of domestic life, from the flowers in the well-watered court to the 
daughter's bed, with its white muslin curtains tied with rose-colored rib- 
bons." — Countess Merlin's Letters. 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 105 

curtains do not. One reason why the Cubans, of both sexes, 
possess such fine expansive chests, is doubtless the fact that 
their lungs thus find full and unrestrained action, living, as 
it were, ever in the open air. The effect of this upon the 
stranger is at once visible in a sense of physical exhilara- 
tion, fine spirits and good appetite. It would be scarcely 
possible to inhabit a house built after our close, secure style, 
if it were placed in the city of Havana, or even on an in- 
land plantation of the island. The town houses are always 
accessible upon the roofs, where during the day the laun- 
dress takes possession, but at evening they are frequently 
the family resort, where the evening cigar is enjoyed, and 
the gossip of the day discussed, in the enjoyment of the sea 
breeze that sweeps in from the waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico. 

Just outside the city walls of Havana, and on the imme- 
diate sea-coast, lies the Campo Santo, or public cemetery, 
not far from the city prison. It is approached by a long 
street of dilapidated and miserable dwellings, and is not at- 
tractive to the eye, though the immediate entrance is through 
cultivated shrubbery. A broad, thick wall encloses the 
cemetery, in which oven-like niches are prepared for the 
reception of the coffins, containing the better or more 
wealthy classes, while the poor are thrown into shallow 
graves, sometimes several together, not unfrequently 
negroes and whites, without a coffin, quicklime being freely 
used to promote decomposition. In short, the whole idea, 



106 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

and every association of the Campo Santo, is of a repulusive 
and disagreeable character. 

This irreverent treatment of the dead, and the neglected 
condition of their place of sepulture, is a sad feature in a 
Christian country, contrasting strongly with the honors paid 
to the memory of the departed by semi-civilized and even 
savage nations. We all know the sacredness that is at- 
tached by the Turks to their burial grounds, how the mourn- 
ful cypresses are taught to rise among the turbaned tomb- 
stones, and how the survivors are wont to sit upon the graves 
of the departed, musing for hours over the loved and lost, 
and seeming to hold communion with their liberated spirits. 
How different is it here with the Campo Santo ! The bit- 
terest pang that an Indian endures when compelled to leave 
his native hunting grounds, is that he must abandon the 
place where the ashes of his ancestors repose. The enligh- 
tened spirit which removes cemeteries from the centre of 
dense population is worthy of all commendation — the taste 
that adorns them with trees and flowers, beautifying the 
spot where the " last of earth" reposes, is a proof of high- 
toned feeling and a high civilization. Nothing of this spirit 
is manifested at Havana. The establishment of the ceme- 
tery without the walls of the city was a sanitary measure, 
dictated by obvious necessity, but there the march of im- 
provement stopped. No effort has been made to follow 
the laudable example of other countries ; no, the Spanish 
character, arrogant and self-sufficient, will not bend to be 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 107 

taught by others, and will not admit a possibility of error, 
and they are as closely wedded to national prejudices as the 
Chinese. Spain is, at this moment, the most old-fashioned 
country of Christendom, and it is only when pressed upon by 
absolute necessity that she reluctantly admits of innovation. 

Tacon, during his rule in the island, erected outside the 
city walls, and near the gate of La Punta, on the shore, a 
spacious prison, capable of accommodating five thousand 
prisoners. It is quadrangular, each side being some three 
hundred feet long and fifty high, enclosing a central square, 
planted with shrubbery and watered by a cooling and grace- 
ful fountain. The fresh breeze circulates freely through its 
walls, and it is considered one of the healthiest spots in the 
vicinity of the capital, while it certainly presents a strong 
contrast to the neglected precincts of the Campo Santo, 
hard by. 

The fish-market of Havana affords probably the best 
variety of this article of any city in the world. The long 
marble counters display the most novel and tempting array 
that one can well imagine ; every hue of the rainbow is re- 
presented, and a great variety of shapes. But a curse 
hangs over this species of food, plenty and fine as it is, for 
it is made a government monopoly, and none but its agents 
are permitted to sell or to catch it in the vicinity of the city. 
This singular law, established under Tacon, is of peculiar 
origin, and we cannot perhaps do better than tell the story, 
as gathered on the spot, for the amusement of the reader. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE STORY OF MARTI, THE SMUGGLE*. 

One of the most successful villains whose story will be 
written in history, is a man named Marti, as well known in 
Cuba as the person of the governor-general himself. For- 
merly he was notorious as a smuggler and half pirate on the 
coast of the island, being a daring and accomplished leader 
of reckless men. At one time he bore the title of King of 
the Isle of Pines, where was his principal rendezvous, and 
from whence he despatched his vessels, small, fleet crafts, 
to operate in the neighboring waters. 

His story, well known in Cuba and to the home govern- 
ment, bears intimately upon our subject. 

When Tacon landed on the island, and became governor- 
general, he found the revenue laws in a sad condition, as 
well as the internal regulations of the island ; and, with a 
spirit of mingled justice and oppression, he determined to 
do something in the way of reform.* The Spanish marine 
sent out to regulate the maritime matters of the island, lay 

* Tacon governed Cuba four years, from 183-i to 1838. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 109 

idly in port, the officers passing their time on shore, or in 
giving balls and dances on the decks of their vessels. 
Tacon saw that one of the first moves for him to make was 
to suppress the smuggling upon the coast, at all hazards ; 
and to this end he set himself directly to work. The mari- 
time force at his command was at once detailed upon this 
service, and they coasted night and day, but without the 
least success against the smugglers. In vain were all the 
vigilance and activity of Tacon and his agents — they 
accomplished -nothing. 

At last, finding that all his expeditions against them 
failed, partly from the adroitness and bravery of the smug- 
glers, and partly from the want of pilots among the shoals 
and rocks that they frequented, a large and tempting 
reward was offered to any one of them who would desert 
from his comrades and act in this capacity in behalf of the 
government. At the same time, a double sum. most 
princely in amount, was offered for the person of one Marti, 
dead or alive, who was known to be the leader of the law- 
less rovers who thus defied the government. These rewards 
were freely promulgated, and posted so as to reach the ears 
and eyes of those whom they concerned ; but even these 
seemed to produce no effect, and the government officers 
were at a loss how to proceed in the matter. 

It was a dark, cloudy night in Havana, some three or 
four months subsequent to the issuing of these placards 
announcing the rewards as referred to, when two sentinels 
10 



110 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

were pacing backwards and forwards before the main 
entrance to the governor's palace, just opposite the grand 
plaza. A little before midnight, a man, wrapped in a cloak, 
was watching them from behind the statue of Ferdinand, 
near the fountain, and, after observing that the two sol- 
diers acting as sentinels paced their brief walk so as to meet 
each other, and then turn their backs as they separated, 
leaving a brief moment in the interval when the eyes of 
both were turned away from the entrance they were placed 
to guard, seemed to calculate upon passing them unob- 
served. It was an exceedingly delicate manoeuvre, and 
required great care and dexterity to effect it ; but, at last, 
it was adroitly done, and the stranger sprang lightly 
through the entrance, secreting himself behind one of the 
pillars in the inner court of the palace. The sentinels paced 
on undisturbed. 

The figure which had thus stealthily effected an entrance, 
now sought the broad stairs that led to the governor's suit 
of apartments, with a confidence that evinced a perfect 
knowledge of the place. A second guard-post was to be 
passed at the head of the stairs ; but, assuming an air of 
authority, the stranger offered a cold military salute and 
pressed forward, as though there was not the most distant 
question of his right so to do ; and thus avoiding all sus- 
picion in the guard's mind, he boldly entered the gov- 
ernor's reception room unchallenged, and closed the door 
behind him. In a large easy chair sat the commander-in- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. Ill 

chief, busily engaged in writing, but alone. An expression 
of undisguised satisfaction passed across the weather-beaten 
countenance of the new comer at this state of affairs, as he 
coolly cast off his cloak and tossed it over his arm, and then 
proceeded to wipe the perspiration from his face. The gov- 
ernor, looking up with surprise, fixed his keen eyes upon 
the intruder, — 

"Who enters here, unannounced, at this hour?" he 
asked, sternly, while he regarded the stranger earnestly. 

" One who has information of value for the governor- 
general. You are Tacon, I suppose ? " 

"lam. What would you with me? or, rather, how 
did you pass my guard unchallenged ? " 

" Of that anon. Excellency, you have offered a hand- 
some reward for information concerning the rovers of the 
gulf?" 

"Ha! yes. What of them?" said Tacon, with undis- 
guised interest. 

"Excellency, I must speak with caution," continued 
the new comer; "otherwise I may condemn and sacrifice 
myself." 

"You have naught to fear on that head. The offer of 
reward for evidence against the scapegraces also vouchsafes 
a pardon to the informant. You may speak on, without 
fear for yourself, even though you may be one of the very 
confederation itself." 

"You offer a reward, also, in addition, for the discovery 



112 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

of Marti, — Captain Marti, of the smugglers, — do you 
not?" 

"We do, and will gladly make good the promise of 
reward for any and all information upon the subject," 
replied Tacon. 

" First, Excellency, do you give me your knightly word 
that you will grant a free pardon to me, if I reveal all that 
you require to know, even embracing the most secret 
hiding-places of the rovers? " 

" I pledge you my word of honor," said the commander. 

"No matter how heinous in the sight of the law my 
oifences may have been, still you will pardon me, under the 
king's seal?" 

" I will, if you reveal truly and to any good purpose," 
answered Tacon, weighing in his mind the purpose of all 
this precaution. 

" Even if I were a leader among the rovers, myself? " 

The governor hesitated for a moment, canvassing in a 
single glance the subject before him, and then said : 

" Even then, be you whom you may; if you are able 
and will honestly pilot our ships and reveal the secrets of 
Marti and his followers, you shall be rewarded as our prof- 
fer sets forth, and yourself receive a free pardon." 

"Excellency, I think I know your character well enough 
to trust you, else I should not have ventured here." 

" Speak, then ; my time is precious," was the impatient 
reply of Tacon. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 113 

" Then, Excellency, the man for whom you have offered 
the largest reward, dead or alive, is now before you ! " 

" And you are — " 

"Marti!" 

The governor-general drew back in astonishment, and 
cast his eyes towards a brace of pistols that lay within 
reach of his right hand ; but it was only for a single mo- 
ment, when he again assumed entire self-control, and said, 

" I shall. keep my promise, sir, provided you are faithful, 
though the laws call loudly for your punishment, and even 
now you are in my power. To insure your faithfulness, 
you must remain at present under guard." Saying which, 
he rang a silver bell by his side, and issued a verbal order 
to the attendant who answered it. Immediately after, the 
officer of the watch entered, and Marti was placed in con- 
finement, with orders to render him comfortable until he 
was sent for. His name remained a secret with the com- 
mander ; and thus the night scene closed. 

On the following day, one of the men-of-war that lay 
idly beneath the guns of Moro Castle suddenly became the 
scene of the utmost activity, and, before noon, had weighed 
her anchor, and was standing out into the gulf stream. 
Marti, the smuggler, was on board, as her pilot ; and faith- 
fully did he guide the ship, on the discharge of his treach- 
erous business, among the shoals and bays of the coast for 
nearly a month, revealing every secret haunt of the rovers, 
exposing their most valuable depots and well-selected ren- 
10* 



114 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

dezvous; and many a smuggling craft was taken and 
destroyed. The amount of money and property thus se- 
cured was very great ; and Marti returned with the ship to 
claim his reward from the governor-general, who, well satis- 
fied with the manner in which the rascal had fulfilled his 
agreement, and betrayed those comrades who were too faith- 
ful to be tempted to treachery themselves, summoned Marti 
before him. 

"As you have faithfully performed your part of our 
agreement," said the governor-general, "I am now pre- 
pared to comply with the articles on my part. In this 
package you will find a free and unconditional pardon for 
all your past offences against the laws. And here is an 
order on the treasury for — " 

" Excellency, excuse me. The pardon I gladly receive. 
As to the sum of money you propose to give to me, let me 
make you a proposition. Retain the money; and, in place 
of it, guarantee to me the right to fish in the neighborhood 
of the city, and declare the trade in fish contraband to all 
except my agents. This will richly repay me, and I will 
erect a public market of stone at my own expense, which 
shall be an ornament to the city, and which at the expira- 
tion of a specified number of years shall revert to the gov- 
ernment, with all right and title to the fishery." 

Tacon was pleased at the idea of a superb fish-market, 
which should eventually revert to the government, and also 
at the idea of saving the large sum of money covered by 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 115 

the promised reward. The singular proposition of the 
smuggler was duly considered and acceded to, and Marti 
was declared in legal form to possess for the future sole 
right to fish in the neighborhood of the city, or to sell the 
article in any form, and he at once assumed the rights that 
the order guaranteed to him. Having in his roving life 
learned all the best fishing-grounds, he furnished the city 
bountifully with the article, and reaped yearly an immense 
profit, until, at the close of the period for which the monop- 
oly was granted, he was the richest man on the island. 
According to the agreement, the fine market and its privi- 
lege reverted to the government at the time specified, and 
the monopoly has ever since been rigorously enforced. 

Marti, now possessed of immense wealth, looked about 
him, to see in what way he could most profitably invest it 
to insure a handsome and sure return. The idea struck 
him if he could obtain the monopoly of theatricals in 
Havana on some such conditions as he had done that of the 
right to fish off its shores, he could still further increase his 
ill-gotten wealth. He obtained the monopoly, on condition 
that he should erect one of the largest and finest theatres in 
the world, which he did, as herein described, locating the 
same just outside the city walls. With the conditions of 
the monopoly, the writer is not conversant. 

Many romantic stories are told of Marti ; but the one we 
have here related is the only one that is authenticated, and 
which has any bearing upon the present work. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The lottery at Havana — Hospitality of the Spaniards — Flattery — 
Cuban ladies — Castilian, Parisian and American politeness — The 
bonnet in Cuba — Ladies' dresses — The fan — Jewelry and its wear 
— Culture of flowers — Reflections — A most peculiar narcotic — Cost 
of living on the island — Guines — The cock-pit — Training of the 
birds — The garden of the world — Birds of the tropics — Condition 
of agriculture — Night-time — The Southern Cross — Natural re- 
sources of Cuba — Her wrongs and oppressions. 

There is a monthly lottery in Havana, with prizes 
amounting to one hundred and ten thousand dollars, and 
sometimes as high as one hundred and eighty thousand dol- 
lars, under the immediate direction and control of the 
authorities, and which is freely patronized by the first mer- 
cantile houses, who have their names registered for a cer- 
tain number of tickets each month. The poorer classes, 
too, by clubbing together, become purchasers of tickets, 
including.slaves and free negroes ; and it is but a few years 
since, that some slaves, who had thus united and purchased 
a ticket, drew the first prize of sixty thousand dollars; 
which was honestly paid to them, and themselves liberated 
by the purchase of their freedom from their masters. Hon- 
estly and strictly conducted as these lotteries are, yet their 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 117 

very stability, and the just payment of all prizes, but makes 
them the more baneful and dangerous in their influence 
upon the populace. Though now and then a poor man 
becomes rich through their means, yet thousands are impov- 
erished in their mad zeal to purchase tickets, though it cost 
them their last medio. The government thus countenances 
and fosters a taste for gambling, while any one acquainted 
at all with the Spanish character, must know that the peo- 
ple need no prompting in a vice to which they seem to take 
intuitivel y.^ 

The Spaniards receive credit for being a very hospitable 
people, and to a certain extent this is due to them ; but the 
stranger soon learns to regard the extravagant manifesta- 
tions which too often characterize their etiquette, as quite 
empty and heartless. Let a stranger enter the house of a 
Cuban for the first time, and the host or hostess of the 
mansion says at once, either in such words or their equiva- 
lent, " All that we have is at your service ; take what you 
will, and our right hand with it." Yet no one thinks of 
understanding this literally. The family volante is at your 
order, or a saddle horse ; and in such small kindnesses they 
are indeed polite ; but when they beg of you to accept a 
ring, a book, a valuable toy, because you have happened to 
praise it, you are by no means to do so. Another trait of 
character which suggests itself in this connection, is their 
universal habit of profuse compliment.* The ladies listen 

* The common salutation, on being introduced or meeting a lady, is, 
" A los pies de usted senora " (at the feet of your grace, my lady). 



118 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

to them, as a matter of course, from their countrymen, or 
from such Frenchmen as have become domesticated in the 
island ; but if an American takes occasion to compliment 
them, they are at once delighted, for they believe them to 
be sincere, and the matter is secretly treasured to be 
repeated. 

The Cuban ladies, with true feminine acuteness, estimate 
correctly the high-flown compliments of their countrymen ; 
and the kindred French, Castilian and Parisian politeness is 
of about equal value, and means the same thing, — that is, 
nothing. To strangers it is very pleasant at first, but the 
moment it is apparent that these profuse protestations of 
friendship and offers of service are transparent devices, and 
that if you take them at their word they are embarrassed, 
perhaps offended, that you must be constantly on your 
guard, and be very careful to consider every fine phrase as 
a flower of rhetoric, it becomes positively disagreeable. 
Good manners go a great way ; and if a person does you a 
favor, the pleasure you experience is much enhanced by the 
grace with which the obligation is conferred ; but there is a 
vast difference between true and false politeness. The 
former springs only from a good and true heart ; the latter 
is especially egotistical. Both the French and Spanish are 
extremely gallant to women; and yet the condition of 
women in both France and Spain is vastly inferior to that 
of our fair countrywomen, notwithstanding the Spanish 
caballero and the Parisian elegant can couch their heart- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 119 

less compliments in terms our plain people would vainly 
attempt to imitate. But what cares a woman for fine 
phrases, if she knows that the respect due to her sex is 
wanting? The condition of the women of Cuba is emi- 
nently Spanish, and she is here too often the slave of pas- 
sion and the victim of jealousy. 

The bonnet, which forms so important a part of the 
ladies' costume in Europe and American cities, is entirely 
unknown, or, rather, never worn by the Creole ladies ; and 
strangers who appear with this article of dress are regarded 
with as much curiosity as we should be exercised by to meet 
in our own streets a Tuscarbra chief in his war-paint. In 
place of the bonnet the Cuban ladies wear a long black veil, 
gathered at the back of the head upon the clustered braid 
of hair (always dark and luxuriant), and drawn to one side 
of the face or the other, as circumstances may require. 
More frequently, however, even this appendage is not seen, 
and they ride in the Paseos and streets with their heads 
entirely uncovered, save by the sheltering hood of the 
volante. When necessity calls them abroad during the 
early or middle hours of the day, there is a canvas screen 
buttoning to the dasher, and extending to the top of the 
vehicle, forming a partial shelter from the sun. This appa- 
ratus is universally arranged upon the volantes which stand 
at the corners of the streets for common hire ; but the pri- 
vate vehicles are rarely seen much abroad before the early 
twilight, or just before sunset. 



120 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Full dress, on all state occasions, with the Cuban ladies, 
is black ; but white is worn on all ordinary ones, forming a 
rich and striking contrast to the fair olive complexions of 
the wearers. Jewelry is worn to a great extent, and, by 
those who can afford it, to the amount of most fabulous 
sums, of course the diamond predominating ; but there is a 
general fondness for opals, garnets and pearls, worn in 
bracelets more particularly, or in bands about the hair, at 
the top of the forehead. There is one article without which 
the Cuban lady would not feel at home for a single mo- 
ment ; it is the fan, which is a positive necessity to her, and 
she learns its coquettish and graceful use from very child- 
hood. Formed of various rich materials, it glitters in her 
hand like a gaudy butterfly, now half, now wholly shading 
her radiant face, which quickly peeps out again from behind 
its shelter, like the moon from out a gilded cloud. This 
little article (always rich and expensive), perfectly indis- 
pensable in a Cuban lady's costume, in their hands seems 
almost to speak ; she has a witching flirt with it that ex- 
presses scorn ; a graceful wave of complaisance ; an abrupt 
closing of it, that indicates vexation or anger ; a gradual 
and cautious opening of its folds, that signifies reluctant 
forgiveness ; in short, the language of the fan in a Cuban's 
hand is an adroit and expressive pantomime, that requires 
no foreign interpreter. 

It may be owing to the prodigality of nature in respect 
to Flora's kingdom, which has led to no development among 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 121 

the people of Cuba, in the love and culture of flowers. Of 
course this remark is intended in a general point of view, 
there necessarily being exceptions to establish the rule. 
But it is a rare thing to see flowers under cultivation here, 
other than such as spring up from the over-fertile soil, un- 
planted and untended. In New Orleans one cannot pass 
out of the doors of the St. Charles Hotel, at any hour of 
the day, without being saluted first by the flavor of magno- 
lias, and then by a Creole flower-girl, with "Buy a bou- 
quet for a dime, sir? " But nothing of the sort is seen in 
Cuba ; flowers are a drug. Nevertheless, I fear that people 
who lack an appreciation of these " illumined scriptures of 
the prairie," show a want of delicacy and refinement that 
even an humble Parisian grisette is not without. Scarcely 
can you pass from the coast of Cuba inland for half a 
league, in any direction, without your senses being regaled 
by the fragrance of natural flowers, — the heliotrope, honey- 
suckle, sweet pea, and orange blossoms predominating. 
The jessamine and cape rose, though less fragrant, are de- 
lightful to the eye, and cluster everywhere, among the 
hedges, groves and plantations. 

There seems to be, at times, a strange narcotic influence 
in the atmosphere of the island, more especially inland, 
where the visitor is partially or wholly removed from the 
winds that usually blow from the gulf in the after part of 
the day. So potent has the writer felt this influence, that 
at first it was supposed to be the effect of some powerful 
11 



122 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

plant that might abound upon the plantations ; but careful 
inquiry satisfied him that this dreamy somnolence, this 
delightful sense of ease and indolent luxuriance of feeling, 
was solely attributable to the natural effect of the soft cli- 
mate of Cuba. By gently yielding to this influence, one 
seems to dream while waking ; and while the sense of hear- 
ing is diminished, that of the olfactories appears to be in- 
creased, and pleasurable odors float upon every passing 
zephyr. One feels at peace with all human nature, and a 
sense of voluptuous ease overspreads the body. Others 
have spoken to the writer of this feeling of idle happiness, 
which he has himself more than once experienced in the 
delightful rural neighborhood of Alquizar. The only un- 
pleasant realizing sense during the enjoyment of the condi- 
tion referred to, is the fear that some human voice, or some 
chance noise, loud and abrupt, shall arouse the waking 
dreamer from a situation probably not unlike the pleasanter 
effect of opium, without its unpleasant reaction. 

As it regards the cost of living in the island, it may be 
said to average rather high to the stranger, though it is 
declared that the expense to those who permanently reside 
here, either in town, or country, is cheaper, all things con- 
sidered, than in the United States. At the city hotels and 
best boarding-houses of Havana and Matanzas, the charge 
is three dollars per day, unless a special bargain is made for 
a considerable period of time. Inland, at the houses of 
public entertainment, the charge per diem is, of course, con- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 123 

siderably less ; and the native style of living is nearly the 
same within or out of the city. The luscious and healthful 
fruits of the tropics form a large share of the provision for 
the table, and always appear in great variety at dessert. 
Good common claret wine is regularly placed before the 
guest without charge, it being the ordinary drink of the 
people. As to the mode of cooking, it seems to be very 
like the French, though the universal garlic, which appears 
to be a positive necessity to a Spanish palate, is very apt to 
form a disagreeable preponderance in the flavor of every 
dish. Fish, meat and fowl are so disguised with this arti- 
cle and with spices, that one is fain to resort to the bill of 
fare, to ascertain of what he is partaking. The vegetable 
soups of the city houses (but for the garlic) are excellent, 
many of the native vegetables possessing not only admirable 
flavor, and other desirable properties for the purpose, but 
being also glutinous, add much to the properties of a prep- 
aration answering to the character of our Julian soup. 
Oysters, though plentiful on the coast, are of inferior qual- 
ity, and are seldom used for the table ; but pickled oysters 
from the United States are largely used in the cities. 

One of the pleasantest places of resort for enjoyment on 
the whole island, is probably the town of Guines, connected 
with Havana by a railroad (the first built upon the soil of 
Cuba), and but a few leagues from the capital.* This 

* San Julian de los Guines contains from two to three thousand inhab- 
itants. 



124 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

locality is thought to be one of the most salubrious and ap- 
propriate for invalids, and has therefore become a general 
resort for this class, possessing several good public houses, 
and in many respects is quite Americanized with regard to 
comforts and the necessities of visitors from the United 
States. In Guines, and indeed in all Cuban towns, vil- 
lages, and even small hamlets, there is a spacious cock-pit, 
where the inhabitants indulge in the sport of cock-fighting, 
— an absorbing passion with the humble, and oftentimes 
with the better classes. This indulgence is illustrative of 
their nature, — that is, the Spanish nature and blood that is 
in them, — a fact that is equally attested by their participa- 
tion in the fearful contest of the bull-fight. It is really 
astonishing how fierce these birds become by training ; and 
they always fight until one or the other dies, unless they 
are interfered with. The amount of money lost and won by 
this cruel mode of gambling is very large daily. Ladies 
frequently attend these exhibitions, the upper seats being 
reserved for them ; and they may, not unfrequently, be 
seen entering fully into the excitement of the sport. 

The cock-pit is a large or small circular building, not 
unlike, in external appearance, to a New England out-door 
hay-stack, its dimensions being governed by the populous- 
ness of the locality where it is erected. The seats are 
raised in a circle, around a common centre, where the birds 
are fought, or "pitted," upon prepared ground, covered 
with saw-dust or tan. The cocks, which are of a peculiar 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 125 

species of game birds, are subjected from chickenhood, so to 
speak, to a peculiar course of treatment. Their food is reg- 
ularly weighed, and so many ounces of grain are laid out for 
each day's consumption, so that the bird is never permitted 
to grow fat, but is kept in " condition " at all times. The 
feathers are kept closely cropped in a jaunty style, and 
neck and head, to the length of three inches or more, are 
completely plucked of all feathers, and daily rubbed with 
aguadiente (island rum), until they become so calloused 
that they are insensible to any ordinary wound which its 
antagonist might inflict. Brief encounters are encouraged 
among them while they are young, under proper restric- 
tions, and no fear is had of their injuring themselves, until 
they are old enough to have the steel gaffs affixed upon 
those which nature has given them. Then, like armed 
men, with swords and daggers, they attack each other, and 
the blood will flow at every stroke, the conflict being in no 
degree impeded, nor the birds affrighted, by the noisy cries, 
jeers, and loud challenges of the excited horde of gamblers 
who throng all sides of the cock-pit.* 

Cuba has been justly styled the garden of the world, per- 
petual summer smiling upon its favored shores, and its nat- 
ural wealth almost baffling the capacity of estimation. The 
waters which surround it, as we have already intimated, 
abound with a variety of fishes, whose bright colors, emu- 

* The English game-cock is prized in Cuba only for crossing the breed, 
for he cannot equal the Spanish bird in agility or endurance. 

11* 



12G HISTORY OF CUBA. 

lating the tints of precious stones and the prismatic hues 
of the rainbow, astonish the eye of the stranger. Stately 
trees of various species, the most conspicuous being the 
royal palm, rear their luxuriant foliage against the azure 
heavens, along the sheltered bays, by the way-side, on the 
swells of the haciendas, delighting the eye of the traveller, 
and diversifying the ever-charming face of the tropical 
landscape. Through the woods and groves flit a variety of 
birds, whose dazzling colors defy the palette of the artist. 
Here the loquacious parrot utters his harsh natural note ; 
there the red flamingo stands patiently by the shore of the 
lagoon, watching in the waters, dyed by the reflection of his 
plumage, for his unconscious prey. It would require a 
volume to describe the vegetable, animal and mineral king- 
dom of Cuba. Among the most familiar birds, and those 
the names of which even the casual observer is apt to learn, 
are the Cuba robin, the blue-bird, the cat-bird, the Spanish 
woodpecker, the gaudy-plumed parrot, the pedoreva, with 
its red throat and breast and its pea-green head and body. 
There is also a great variety of wild pigeons, blue, gray 
and white; the English ladybird, as it is called, with a 
blue head and scarlet breast, and green and white back ; 
the indigo-bird, the golden-winged woodpecker, the ibis, the 
flamingo, and many smaller species, like the humming-bird. 
Parrots settle on the sour orange trees when the fruit is 
ripe, and fifty may be secured by a net at a time. The 
Creoles stew and eat them as we do the pigeon : the flesh is 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 127 

rather tough, and as there are plenty of fine water and 
marsh birds about the lagoons, which are most tender and 
palatable, one is at a loss to account for the taste that leads 
the people to eat the parrot. The brown pelican is very 
plenty on the sea-coast, like the gull off our own shores, 
and may be seen at all times sailing lazily over the sea, and 
occasionally dipping for fish. Here, as among other tropi- 
cal regions, and even in some southern sections of this 
country, the lazy-looking bald-headed vulture is protected 
by law, being a sort of natural scavenger or remover of 
carrion. 

The agriculturists of the island confine their attention 
almost solely to the raising of sugar, coffee and tobacco, 
almost entirely neglecting Indian corn (which the first set- 
tlers found indigenous here), and but slightly attending to 
the varieties of the orange.* It is scarcely creditable that, 
when the generous soil produces from two to three crops 
annually, the vegetable wealth of this island should be so 
poorly developed. It is capable of supporting a population 
of almost any density, and yet the largest estimate gives 
only a million and a half of inhabitants. On treading the 
fertile soil, and on beholding the clustering fruits offered on 
all sides, the delicious oranges, the perfumed pine-apples, 
the luscious bananas, the cooling cocoanuts, and other fruits 



* Three years after the seed of the orange tree is deposited in the soil, 
the tree is twelve or fifteen feet high, and the fourth year it produces a 
hundred oranges. At ten years of age it bears from three to four thou- 
sand, thjis proving vastly profitable. 



128 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

for which our language has no name, we are struck with the 
thought of how much Providence, and how little man, has 
done for this Eden of the Gulf. We long to see it peopled 
by men who can appreciate the gifts of nature, men who are 
willing to do their part in reward for her bounty, men who 
will meet her half way and second her spontaneous efforts.* 
Nowhere on the face of the globe would intelligent labor 
meet with a richer reward, — nowhere on the face of the 
globe would repose from labor be so sweet. The hour of 
rest here sinks upon the face of nature with a peculiar 
charm ; the night breeze comes with its gentle wing to fan 
the weary frame, and no danger lurks in its career. It has 
free scope through the unglazed windows. Beautifully blue 
are the heavens, and festally bright the stars of a tropical 
night. Preeminent in brilliancy among the constellations 
is the Southern Cross, a galaxy of stars that never greets 
us in the north. At midnight its glittering framework 
stands erect ; that solemn hour passed, the Cross declines, f 
How glorious the night where such a heavenly sentinel indi- 
cates its watches ! Cuba is indeed a land of enchantment, 
where nature is beautiful, and where mere existence is a 
luxury, but it requires the infusion of a sterner, more self- 



* " This favored land wants nothing but men to turn its advantages to 
account, and enjoy their results, to be acknowledged as the garden of the 
world." — Alexander H. Everett. 

t Humboldt tells us that he has often heard the herdsmen in South 
America say, " Midnight is past — the Southern Cross begins to 
bend." 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 129 

denying and enterprising race to fully test its capabilities, 
and to astonish the world with its productiveness. ^ 

, We have thus dilated upon the natural resources of Cuba, 
and depicted the charms that rest about her ; but every pic- 
ture has its dark side, and the political situation of the island 
is the reverse in the present instance. Her wrongs are mul- 
tifarious, and the restrictions placed upon her by her op- 
pressors are each and all of so heinous and tyrannical a 
character, that a chapter upon each would be insufficient 
to place them in their true light before the world. There 
is, however,, no better way of placing the grievances of the 
Cubans, as emanating from the home government, clearly 
before the reader, than by stating such of them as occur 
readily to the writer's mind in brief: — 
fj She is permitted no voice in the Cortes ; the press is un- 
\ der the vilest censorship; farmers are compelled to pay ten 
per cent, on all their harvest except sugar, and on that arti- 
cle two and a half per cent. ; the island has been under 
martial law since 1825; over $ 23,000,000 of taxes are 
levied upon the inhabitants, to be squandered by Spain ; ice 
is monopolized by the government ; (flour is so taxed as to 
be inadmissible) a Creole must purchase a license before he 
can invite a few friends to take a cup of tea at his board ; 
there is a stamped paper, made legally necessary for special 
purposes of contract, costing eight dollars per sheet ; no 
goods, either in or out of doors, can be sold without a license ; 
the natives of the island are excluded entirely from the 



\ 



\ 



130 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

army, the judiciary, the treasury, and the customs; the 
military government assumes the charge of the schools; 
the grazing of cattle is taxed exorbitantly ; newspapers 
from abroad, with few exceptions, are contraband : letters 
passing through the post are opened and purged of their 
contents before delivery ; fishing on the coast is forbidden, 
being a government monopoly ; /planters are forbidden to 
send their sons to the United States for educational pur- 
poses ; the slave-trade is secretly encouraged by govern- 
ment;] no person can remove from one house to another 
without first paying for a government permit : all cattle (the 
same as goods) that are sold must pay six per cent, of their 
value to government : in short, every possible subterfuge is 
resorted to by the government officials to swindle the peo- 
ple,* everything being taxed, and there is no appeal from 
, the decision of the captain-general ! 

* " No such extent of taxation, as is now enforced in Cuba, was ever 
known or heard of before in any part of the world ; and no community, 
relying solely on the products of its own labor, could possibly exist 
under it." Alexander H. Everett. 



CHAPTER X. 

The volante and its belongings — The ancient town of Regla — The arena 
for the bull-fights at Havana — A bull-fight as witnessed by the author 
at Regla — A national passion with the Spanish people — Compared 
with old Roman sports — Famous bull-fighters — Personal description of 
Cuban ladies — Description of the men — Romance and the tropics — 
The nobility of Cuba — Sugar noblemen — The grades of society — 
The yeomanry of the island — Their social position — What they might 
be — Love of gambling. 

The volante, that one vehicle of Cuba, has been several 
times referred to in the foregoing pages. It is difficult with- 
out experience to form an idea of its extraordinary ease of 
motion or its appropriateness to the peculiarities of the 
country.* It makes nothing of the deep mud that accom- 
panies the rainy season, but, with its enormous wheels, six 
feet in diameter, heavy shafts, and low-hung, chaise-like 
body, it dashes over and through every impediment with the 
utmost facility. Strange as it may seem, it is very light 
upon the horse, which is also bestridden by the postilion, or 
calisero. When travelling any distance upon the road, a 
second horse is added on the left, abreast, and attached to 

* " When I first saw the rocking motion of the volante as it drove along 
the streets, I thought { that must be an extremely disagreeable carriage ! ' 
but when I was seated in one, I seemed to myself rocked in a cloud. I 
have never felt an easier motion." — Miss Bremer's Letters. 



132 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

the volante by an added whiffletree and traces. When there 
are two horses in this style, the postilion rides the one to 
the left, leaving the shaft horse free of other weight than 
that of the vehicle. 

When the roads are particularly bad and there is more 
than usual weight to carry, of baggage, etc., a third horse 
is often used, but he is still placed abreast with the others, 
to the right of the shaft horse, and guided by a bridle rein 
in the hands of the calisero. The Spaniards take great 
pride in these volantes, especially those improved for city 
use, and they are often to be met with elaborately mounted 
with silver, and in many instances with gold, wrought with 
great skill and beauty. There were volantes pointed out to 
the writer, of thi3 latter character, in Havana, that could 
not have cost less than two thousand dollars each, and this 
for a two-wheeled vehicle. A volante equipped in this 
style, with the gaily dressed calisero, his scarlet jacket elab- 
orately trimmed with silver braid, his high jack-boots with 
silver buckles at the knee, and monstrous spurs upon his 
heels, with rowels an inch long, makes quite a dashing ap- 
pearance, especially if a couple of blackeyed Creole ladies 
happen to constitute the freight. Thus they direct their 
way to the Tacon Paseo, to meet the fashion of the town at 
the close of the day — almost the only out-door recreation 
for the sex. 

Of all the games and sports of the Cubans, that of the 
bull-fight is the 'most cruel and fearful, and without one 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 133 

redeeming feature in its indulgence. The arena for the 
exhibitions in the neighborhood of Havana is just across the 
harbor at Regla, a small town, having a most worn and 
dilapidated appearance.* This place was formerly the haunt 
of pirates, upon whose depredations and boldness the gov- 
ernment, for reasons best known to itself, shut its official 
eyes ; more latterly it has been the hailing place for slavers, 
whose crafts have not yet entirely disappeared, though the 
rigor of the English and French cruisers in the Gulf has ren- 
dered it necessary for them to seek a less exposed rendez- 
vous. Of the Spanish marine they entertain no fear ; there 
is the most perfect understanding on this point, treaty stip- 
ulations touching the slave-trade, between Spain, England 
and France, to the contrary notwithstanding.! But we 
were referring to the subject of the bull-fights. The arena 
at Regla, for this purpose, is a large circular enclosure of 
sufficient dimensions to seat six thousand people, and afford- 
ing perhaps a little more than half an acre of ground for 
the fight. 

The seats are raised one above another in a circle around, 
at a secure height from the dangerous struggle which is 
sure to characterize each exhibition. On the occasion when 
the writer was present, after a flourish of trumpets, a large 
bull was let loose from a stall opening into the pit of the 

* Regla now contains some seven thousand inhabitants, and is chiefly 
engaged in the exportation of molasses, which is here kept in large tanks. 

t An intelligent letter-writer estimates the present annual importation 
of slaves at not less than 10,000 souls, direct from Africa. 

12 



134 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

enclosure, where three Spaniards {toreadors), one on 
foot and two on horseback, were ready to receive him, the 
former armed with a sword, the latter with spears. They 
were three hardened villains, if the human countenance can 
be relied upon as shadowing forth the inner man, seemingly 
reckless to the last degree, but very expert, agile, and wary. 
These men commenced at once to worry and torment the 
bull until they should arouse him to a state of frenzy. Short 
spears were thrust into his neck and sides with rockets 
attached, which exploded into his very flesh, burning and 
affrighting the poor creature. Thrusts from the horsemen's 
spears were made into his flesh, and while he was bleeding 
thus at every pore, gaudy colors were shaken before his 
glowing eyes ; and wherever he turned to escape his tor- 
mentors, he was sure to be met with some freshly devised 
expedient of torment, until at last the creature became 
indeed perfectly infuriated and frantically mad. Now the 
fight was in earnest ! 

In vain did the bull plunge gallantly and desperately at 
his enemies, they were far too expert for him. They had 
made this game their business perhaps for years. Each rush 
he* made upon them was easily avoided, and he passed them 
by, until, in his headlong course, he thrust his horns deep 
into the boards of the enclosure. The idea, of course, was 
not to give him any fatal wounds at the outset, and thus 
dispatch him at once, but to worry and torment him to the 
last. One of the gladiators now attacked him closely with 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 135 

the sword, and dexterously wounded him in the back of the 
neck at each plunge the animal made towards him, at the 
same time springing on one side to avoid the shock. After 
a long fight and at a grand flourish of trumpets, the most 
skilful of the swordsmen stood firm and received the infu- 
riated beast on the point of his weapon, which was aimed at 
a fatal spot above the frontlet, leading direct to the brain. 
The effect was electrical, and like dropping the curtain upon 
a play : the animal staggered, reeled a moment, and fell 
dead ! Three bulls were thus destroyed, the last one in his 
frenzy goring a fine spirited horse, on which one of the glad- 
iators was mounted, to death, and trampling his rider fear- 
fully. During the exhibition, the parties in the arena were 
encouraged to feats of daring by the waving of handker- 
chiefs and scarfs in the hands of the fair senoras and seno- 
ritas. Indeed there is generally a young, girl trained to the 
business, who takes a part in the arena with the matadors 
against the bull. The one thus engaged, on the occasion 
here referred to, could not have exceeded seventeen years 
in age.* 

Whatever colonial modifications the Spanish character 
may have undergone in Cuba, the Creole is Castilian still 
in his love for the cruel sports of the arena, and there is a 
great similarity between the modern Spaniards and the an- 

* " One of the chief features in this sport, and which attracted so many, 
myself among the number, was a young and beautiful girl, as lovely a 
creature as Heaven ever smiled upon, being one of the chief actresses in 
the exciting and thrilling scene." — Rev. L. L. Allen's Lecture. 



136 HISTORY OF CUBA, 

cient Romans in this respect. As the Spanish language 
more closely resembles Latin than Italian, so do the Span- 
ish people show more of Roman blood than the natives of 
Italy themselves. Panem et circenses (bread and cir- 
cuses !) was the cry of the old Roman populace, and to 
gratify their wishes millions of sesterces were lavished, and 
hecatombs of human victims slain, in the splendid amphi- 
theatres erected by the masters of the world in all the cities 
subjected to their sway. And so pan y toros (bread and 
bulls !) is the imperious demand of the Spaniards, to which 
the government always promptly responds. 

The parallel may be pursued still further : the loveliest 
ladies of Rome gazed with rapture upon the dying agonies 
of the gladiators who hewed each other in pieces, or the 
Christians who perished in conflict with the wild beasts half 
starved to give them battle ! The beauteous senoras and 
seiioritas of Madrid and Havana enjoy with a keen delight 
the terrible spectacle of bulls speared by the picador, 
or gallant horses ripped up and disembowelled by the 
horns of their brute adversaries. It is true that the ame- 
liorating spirit of Christianity is evident in the changes 
which the arena has undergone ; human lives are not sac- 
rificed wholesale in the combats ; and yet the bull-fight 
is sufficiently barbarous and atrocious. It is a national 
institution, and, as an indication of national character, is 
well worthy of attention, however repulsive to the sensi- 
tive mind. The queen of England is sometimes pres- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 137 

ent on the race-track, so also the queen of Spain occupies 
the royal box at the great bull-festas of Madrid. A skil- 
ful bull-fighter is a man of mark and distinction. Montez 
was regarded by the Spaniards of this generation with 
nearly as much respect as Don Rodriguez de Bivar in the 
days of the Moorish wars, to such a point has the vaunted 
chivalry of Spain degenerated ! Sometimes Spanish nobles 
enter the arena, and brave peril and death for the sake of 
the applause bestowed upon the successful torero, and 
many lives are lost annually in this degrading sport. 

Few professional bull-fighters reach an advanced age ; 
their career in the arena is afeiost always short, and they 
cannot avoid receiving severe wounds in their dangerous 
career. Pepe Illo, a famous Spanish picador, was wounded 
no less than twenty-six times, and finally killed by a bull. 
This man and another noted torero, named Romero, were 
possessed of such undaunted courage, that, in order to excite 
the interest of the spectators, they were accustomed to con- 
front the bull with fetters upon their feet. Another famous 
picador in the annals of the arena was Juan Sevilla, who 
on one occasion was charged furiously by an Andalusian bull 
which overthrew both horse and rider. The savage animal, 
finding that the legs of his fallen antagonist were so well 
protected by the iron-ribbed hide of the pantaloons the bull- 
fighters wear that it was impossible to make an impression on 
them, lowered his horns with the intention of striking him 
in the face ;, but the dauntless picador, seizing one of the 
12* 



138 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

bull's ears in his right hand, and thrusting the fingers of 
the other into his nostrils, after a horrible struggle com- 
pelled him to retire. Then, when every one looked to see 
him borne out of the ring dying, he rose to his feet, called 
for a fresh horse and lance, and bounding into the saddle, 
attacked the bull in the centre of the ring, and driving the 
iron up to the shaft in his neck, rolled him over dead. 
"0," says an enthusiastic eye-witness of this prodigious 
feat, " if you had heard the vivas, if you had witnessed 
the frantic joy, the crazy ecstasy at the display of so 
much courage and good fortune, like me you would have 
envied the lot of Sevilla." Such are some of the dangers 
and excitements of the bull-ring ; such is the character of 
some of the scenes which the gentle ladies of Cuba have 
learned, not to endure, but to welcome with delight. 

To look upon these ladies, you could not possibly imagine 
that there was in them sufficient hardihood to witness such 
exhibitions. They are almost universally handsome, in per- 
son rather below the height of the sex with us, but with an 
erect and dignified carriage, and with forms always rounded 
to a delicate fullness, displaying a tendency to enbonpoint 
quite perfection itself in point of model.* The hair is 
always black and profuse, the complexion a light olive, 
without a particle of carmine, the eyes — a match for the 
hair in color — are large and beautifully expressive, with a 

* " The waist is slender, but never compressed by corsets, so that it re- 
tains all its natural proportions." — Connies* Merlin's Letters. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 139 

most irresistible dash of languor in them.* It is really 
difficult to conceive of a homely woman with such eyes as you 
are sure to find them endowed with in Cuba. They have 
been justly famed also for their graceful carriage, and, in- 
deed, it is the very poetry of motion, singular as it may 
seem when it is remembered that for them to walk abroad is 
such a rarity. It is not simply a progressive move, but the 
harmonious play of features, the coquettish undulation 
of the face, the exquisite disposition of costume, and modu- 
lation of voice, rich, liquid and sweet as the nightingale's, 
that engage the beholder, and lend a happy charm to the 
majestic grace of every attitude and every step. It is a 
union, a harmonious consort of all these elements, that so 
beautifies the carriage of the Cuban ladies. 

The men are, also, generally speaking, manly and good- 
looking, though much lighter, smaller and more agile, than 
the Americans. The lazy life that is so universally led by 
them tends to make them less manly in physical develop- 
ment than a life of activity would do. > It seems to be an 
acknowledged principle among them never to do that for 
themselves that a slave can do for them, — a fact that is 
very plainly demonstrated by the style of the volante, where 
the little horse is made not only to draw after him the vehi- 
cle and its contents, but also to carry upon his back a heavy 

t " They have plump figures, placid, un wrinkled countenances, well- 
developed busts, and eyes the brilliant, languor of which is not the languor 
of illness." — W. C. Bryant's Letters. 



140 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

negro, weighed down with jack-boots and livery, as a driver, 
when a pair of reins extending from the bridle to the vo- 
lante would obviate all necessity for the negro's presence at 
all. But a Creole or Spaniard would think it demeaning 
to drive his own volante ; the thing is never seen on the 
island. The climate, we know, induces to this sense of ease. 
With abundance of leisure, and the ever-present influences 
of their genial clime, where the heart's blood leaps more 
swiftly to the promptings of the imagination — where the 
female form earliest attains its wonted beauty and longest 
holds its sway over the heart — the West Indies seem pecu- 
liarly adapted for romance and love. The consequent ad- 
ventures among the people are very numerous, and not, 
oftentimes, without startling interest, affording such themes 
and plots as a French feuilletonist might revel in. An 
ungraceful woman is not to be found on the island ; whether 
bred in the humble cottage of the Montero, or in the luxu- 
riant mansion of the planter or citizen, she is sure to evince 
all the ease and grace of polished life. Your heart is bound 
to them at once, when on parting they give you kindly the 
Spanish benediction, " Go, senor, in a good hour." 

The nobility of Cuba, so called, is composed of rather 
original material, to say the least of it, and forms rather 
a funny "institution." There may be some thirty gentle- 
men dubbed with the title of Marquis, and as many more 
with that of Count, most of both classes having acquired 
their wealth by the carrying on of extensive sugar planta- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 141 

tions. These are sneeringly designated by the humbler 
classes as " sugar noblemen," nearly all of these aristocratic 
gentlemen having bought their titles outright for money, 
not the least consideration being had by the Spanish throne 
as to the fitness of the individual even for this nominal 
honor, save a due consideration for the amount of the would- 
be noble's fortune. Twenty-five thousand dollars will pur- 
chase either title. And yet, the tone of Cuban society may / 
be said to be eminently aristocratic, and, in certain circles,/ 
very exclusive. } The native of old Spain does not endeavor 
to conceal his contempt of foreigners and the Creoles, shield- 
ing his inferiority of intelligence under a cloak of hauteur : 
and thus the Castilians and Creoles form two quite distinct 
classes in the island, — a distinction which the home gov- / 
ernment endeavor to foster and promote in every way, for 
obvious reasons of their own.j 

K The sugar planter, the coffee planter, the merchant, the \ 
"— iiberal professions and the literati (this last a meagre class 
in numbers), stand about in the order in which we have 
written them, as it regards their relative degrees or social- 
position, but wealth has the same charm here as in every 
part of Christendom, and the millionaire has the entree to 
all classes. The Monteros, or yeomanry of Cuba, inhabit 
the less-cultivated portions of the soil, venturing into the 
cities only to sell their surplus produce, acting as " mar- 
ket-men " for the cities in the immediate neighborhood of 
their homes.^SWhen they stir abroad they are always armed 

3 



142 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

cap-a-pie with sword and pistols,* and, indeed, every one 
carries arms upon the inland roads of Cuba. Formerly 
this was a most indispensable precaution, though weapons 
are now rarely brought into use. ) The arming of the Mon- 
teros, however, has always been encouraged by the author- 
ities, as they thus form a sort of mounted militia at all times 
available, and, indeed, not only the most effective, but about 
the only available arm of defence against negro insurrec- 
tions. The Montero is rarely a slave-owner himself, but 
frequently is engaged on the plantations during the busy 
season as an extra overseer. He is generally a hard task- 
master to the slave, having an intuitive hatred for the 
blacksrs 

The Monteros f form an exceedingly important and inter- 
esting class of the population of the island. They marry 
very young, — the girls from thirteen to fifteen, the young 
men from sixteen to twenty, — and almost universally rear- 
ing large families. Their increase during the last twenty 
years has been great, and they seem to be fast approaching 
to a degree of importance that will make them, like the 
American farmers, the bone and sinew of the land. The 



* " The broadsword dangles by the side of the gentleman, and holsters 
are inseparable from his saddle ; the simplest countryman, on his straw 
saddle, belts on his rude cutlass, and every man with a skin less dark 
than an African appears ready for encounter." — Rev. Abiel Abbot's 
Letters. 

t " They are men of manly bearing, of thin make, but often of a good 
figure, with well-spread shoulders,- which, however, have a stoop in 
them, contracted, I suppose, by riding always with a short stirrup." — 
W. C. Bryant's Letters. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 143 

great and glaring misfortune of their present situation, is 
the want of intelligence and cultivation ; books they have 
none, nor, of course, schools. It is said that they have 
been somewhat aroused, of late, from this condition of leth- 
argy concerning education, and that efforts are being made 
among them to a considerable extent to afford their children 
opportunity for instruction. Physically speaking, they are 
a fine yeomanry, and, if they could be rendered intelligent, 
would in time become what nature seems to have designed 
them for, — the real masters of the country." r 

There is one fact highly creditable to the 'Monteros, and 
that is their temperate habits, as it regards indulgence in 
stimulating drinks. As a beverage, they do not use ardent 
spirits, and seem to have no taste for the article, though at 
times they join the stranger in a social glass. I doubt if 
any visitor ever saw one of this class in the least intoxicated. 
This being the fact, they are a very reliable people, and can 
be counted upon in an emergency. As to the matter of 
temperance, it needs no missionaries in the island, for prob- 
ably there is not so large a tract of territory in Europe or 
America, as this island, where such a degree of temperance 
is observed in the use of intoxicating drinks. Healths are 
drunk at table, but in sparing draughts, while delicious 
fruits fill up the time devoted to dessert. 

There is probably but one vice that the Monteros may be 
said to be addicted to, or which they often indulge in, and 
that is one which is so natural to a Spaniard, and the appli- 



144 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

ances for which are so constantly at hand, in the shape of 
the cock-pit, that it is not a wonder he should be seduced by 
the passion of gambling. Many of the more intelligent 
avoid it altogether, but with others it appears to be a part 
and parcel of their very existence. In the cities, as wc 
have already shown, the government encourage and patron- 
ize the spirit of gaming, as they derive from its practice, 
by charging exorbitant licences, etc., a heavy sum annually. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A sugar plantation — Americans employed — Slaves on the plantations — > 
A coffee plantation — Culture of coffee, sugar and tobacco — statistics 
of agriculture — The cucullos, or Cuban fire-fly — Novel ornaments 
worn by the ladies — The Cuban mode of harnessing oxen — The mon- 
tero and his horse — Curious style of out-door painting — Petty annoy- 
ances to travellers — Jealousy of the authorities — Japan-like watch- 
fulness — Questionable policy — Political condition of Cuba. 

The sugar plantations are the least attractive in external 
appearance, but the most profitable, pecuniarily, of all 
agricultural investments in the tropics. They spread out 
their extensive fields of cane without any relief whatever to 
the eye, save here and there the tall, majestic and glorious 
palm bending gracefully over the undergrowth. The 
income of some of the largest sugar plantations in Cuba is 
set down as high as two hundred thousand dollars per 
annum, the lowest perhaps exceeding one hundred thousand 
dollars. Some of them still employ ox-power for grinding 
the cane ; but American steam-engines are fast taking the 
place of animal power, and more or less are monthly ex- 
ported for this purpose from New York, Philadelphia and 
Boston. This creates a demand for engineers and machin- 
13 



146 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

ists, for whom the Cubans are also dependent upon this 
country ; and there are said to be at this time two hundred 
Bostonians thus engaged, at a handsome remuneration, 
upon the island. A Spaniard or Creole * would as soon 
attempt to fly as he would endeavor to learn how properly 
to run a steam-engine. As this happens to "he a duty that 
it is not safe to entrust to even a faithful slave, he is there- 
fore obliged to send abroad for foreign skill, and to pay for 
it in round numbers. 

During the manufacturing season a large, well-managed 
sugar plantation exhibits a scene of the utmost activity and 
unremitting labor. The planter must "make hay while 
the sun shines ; " and when the cane is ripe no time must 
be lost in expressing the juice. Where oxen are employed, 
they often die of over-work before the close of the season, 
and the slaves are allowed but five hours for sleep, though 
during the rest of the year the task of the negroes is com- 
paratively light, and they may sleep ten hours if they 
choose.* In society, the sugar planter holds a higher rank 
than the coffee planter, as we have indicated in the classifi- 
cation already given ; probably, however, merely as in the 
scale of wealth, for it requires nearly twice the amount of 



* According to the Spanish slave code, the slave can be kept at work in 
Cuba only from sunrise till sunset, with an interval for repose at noon 
of two hours. But this is not regarded in the manuficturing season, 
which, after all, the slaves do not seem to dread, as they are granted 
more privileges at this period, and are better fed, with more variety of 
meats and spices, with other agreeable indulgences. 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 147 

capital to carry on the former that is required to perfect the 
business of the latter, both in respect to the number of 
hands and also as it relates to machinery. But, as the 
sugar plantation surpasses the coffee in wealth, so the coffee 
plantation surpasses the sugar in every natural beauty and 
attractiveness. 

A coffee plantation is one of the most beautiful gardens 
that can well be conceived of ; in its variety and beauty 
baffling correct description, being one of those peculiar 
characteristics of the low latitudes which must be seen to be 
understood. An estate devoted to this purpose usually 
covers some three hundred acres of land, planted in regu- 
lar squares of eight acres, and intersected by broad alleys 
of palms, mangoes, oranges, and other ornamental and 
beautiful tropical trees.* Mingled with these are planted 
lemons, pomegranates, cape jessamines, and a species of 
wild heliotrope, fragrant as the morning. Conceive of this 
beautiful arrangement, and then of the whole when in 
flower ; the coffee, with its milk-white blossoms, so abun- 
dant that it seems as though a pure white cloud of snow 
had fallen there and left the rest of the vegetation fresh and 
green. Interspersed in these fragrant alleys is the red of 
the Mexican rose, the flowering pomegranate, and the large, 
gaudy flower of the penon, shrouding its parent stem in a 
cloak of scarlet, with wavings here and there of the grace- 

* The coffee-tree requires to be protected, at least partially, from the 
°"n : hence the planting of bananas and other trees in their midst. 



148 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

ful yellow flag, and many bewitchingly-fragrant wild 
flowers, twining their tender stems about the base of these. 
In short, a coffee plantation is a perfect floral El Dorado, 
with every luxury (except ice) the heart could wish. The 
writer's experience was mainly gained upon the estate of 
Dr. Finlay, a Scotch physician long resident in Cuba, and 
who is a practising physician in Havana. He has named 
his plantation, in accordance with the custom of the plant- 
ers, with a fancy title, and calls it pleasantly Buena Espe- 
ranza (good hope). 

The three great staples of production and exportation are 
sugar, coffee and tobacco. The sugar-cane (arundo sac- 
charifera) is the great source of the wealth of the island. 
Its culture requires, as we have remarked elsewhere, large 
capital, involving as it does a great number of hands, and 
many buildings, machines, teams, etc. We are not aware 
that any attempt has ever been made to refine it on the 
island. The average yield of a sugar plantation affords a 
profit of about fifteen per cent, on the capital invested. 
Improved culture and machinery have vastly increased the 
productiveness of the sugar plantations. In 1775 there 
were four hundred and fifty-three mills, and the crops did 
not yield quite one million three hundred thousand arrobas 
(an arroba is twenty-five pounds). Fifty years later, a 
thousand mills produced eight million arrobas ; that is to 
say, each mill produced six times more sugar. The Cuban 
sugar has the preference in all the markets of Europe. Its 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 149 

manufacture yields, besides, molasses, which forms an 
important article of export. \A liquor, called aguadiente^ 
is manufactured in large quantities from the~"molasses. 
There are several varieties of cane cultivated on the island. 
The Otaheitian cane is very much valued. A plantation 
of sugar-cane requires renewal once in about seven years. 
The canes are about the size of a walking-stick, are cut off 
near the root, and laid in piles, separated from the tops, 
and then conveyed in carts to the sugar-mill, where they 
are unladen. Women are employed to feed the mills, 
which is done by throwing the canes into a sloping trough, 
from which they pass between the mill-stones and are 
ground entirely dry. The motive power is supplied either 
by mules and oxen, or by steam. Steam machinery is 
more and more extensively employed, the best machines 
being made in the vicinity of Boston. The dry canes, after 
the extraction of the juice, are conveyed to a suitable place 
to be spread out and exposed to the action of the sun ; after 
which they are employed as fuel in heating the huge boilers 
in which the cane-juice is received, after passing through 
the tank, where it is purified, lime-water being there em- 
ployed to neutralize any free acid and separate vegetable 
matters. The granulation and crystallization is effected in 
large flat pans. After this, it is broken up or crushed, 
and packed in hogsheads or boxes for exportation. A plan- 
tation is renewed by laying the green canes horizontally in 
the ground, when new and vigorous shoots spring up from 
13* 



150 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

every joint, exhibiting the almost miraculous fertility of the 
soil of Cuba under all circumstances. 

The coffee-plant (caffea Arabica) is less extensively 
cultivated on the island than formerly, being found to yield 
only four per cent, on the capital invested. This plant 
was introduced by the French into Martinique in 1727, 
and made its appearance in Cuba in 1769. It requires 
some shade, and hence the plantations are, as already de- 
scribed, diversified by alternate rows of bananas, and other 
useful and ornamental tropical shrubs and trees. The de- 
cadence of this branch of agriculture was predicted for 
years before it took place, the fall of prices being fore- 
seen ; but the calculations of intelligent men were disre- 
garded, simply because they interfered with their own esti- 
mate of profits. When the crash came, many coffee raisers 
entirely abandoned the culture, while the wiser among them 
introduced improved methods and economy into their busi- 
ness, and were well rewarded for their foresight and good 
judgment. The old method of culture was very careless 
and defective. The plants were grown very close together, 
and subjected to severe pruning, while the fruit, gathered 
by hand, yielded a mixture of ripe and unripe berries. In 
the countries where the coffee-plant originated, a very dif- 
ferent method is pursued. The Arabs plant the trees much 
further apart, allow them to grow to a considerable height, 
and gather the crop by shaking the trees, a method which 
secures only the ripe berries. A coffee plantation managed 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 151 

in this way, and combined with the culture of vegetables 
and fruits on the same ground, would yield, it is said, a 
dividend of twelve per cent, on the capital employed ; but 
the Cuban agriculturists have not yet learned to develop 
the resources of their favored island. 

Tobacco. This plant (?iicotia?ia tabacwni) is indige- 
nous to America, but the most valuable is that raised in 
Cuba. Its cultivation is costly, for it requires a new soil 
of uncommon fertility, and a great amount of heat. It is 
very exhausting to the land. It does not, it is true, 
require much labor, nor costly machinery and implements. 
It is valued according to the part of the island in which it 
grows. That of greatest value and repute, used in the 
manufacture of the high cost cigars, is grown in the most 
westerly part of the island, known popularly as the Vuelta 
de Abajo. But the whole western portion of the island is 
not capable of producing tobacco of the .best quality. The 
region of superior tobacco is comprised within a parallelo- 
gram of twenty-nine degrees by seven. Beyond this, up 
to the meridian of Havana, the tobacco is of fine color, but 
inferior aroma (the Countess Merlin calls this aroma the 
vilest of smells) ; and the former circumstance secures it 
the preference of foreigners. From Consolacion to San 
Christoval, the tobacco is very hot, in the language of the 
growers, but harsh and strong, and from San Christoval to 
Guanajay, with the exception of the district of Las Vir- 
tudes, the tobacco is inferior, and continues so up to Hoi- 



152 HISTORY OP CUBA. 

guin y Cuba, where we find a better quality. The fertile 
valley of Los Guines produces poor smoking tobacco, but 
an article excellent for the manufacture of snuff On the 
banks of the Rio San Sebastian are also some lands which 
yield the best tobacco in the whole island. From this it 
may be inferred how great an influence the soil produces on 
the good quality of Cuban tobacco ; and this circumstance 
operates more strongly and directly than the slight differ- 
ences of climate and position produced by immediate locali- 
ties. Perhaps a chemical analysis of the soils of the Vuelta 
de Abajo would enable the intelligent cultivator to supply 
to other lands in the island the ingredients wanting to 
produce equally good tobacco. The cultivators in the 
Vuelta de Abajo are extremely skilful, though not scien- 
tific. The culture of tobacco yields about seven per cent, 
on the capital invested, and is not considered to be so profit- 
able on the island as of yore. 

Cacao, rice, plantains, indigo, cotton, sago, yuca (a fari- 
naceous plant, eaten like potatoes), Indian corn, and many 
other vegetable productions, might be cultivated to a much 
greater extent and with larger profit than they yield. We 
are astonished to find that with the inexhaustible fertility of 
the soil, with an endless summer, that gives the laborer two 
and three crops of some articles a year, agriculture gener- 
ally yields a lower per centage than in our stern northern 
latitudes. The yield of a caballeria (thirty-two and seven- 
tenths acres) is as follows : 





HISTORY 


OF CUBA. 153 


Sugar, 


. $2,500 


Indian corn, 2 crops, $1,500 


Coffee, 


750 


Rice, . . 1,000 


Tobacco, 


3,000 


Sago, . . . 1,500 


Cacao, . 


. 5,000 


Plantains, . . 2,500 


Indigo, 


2,000 


Yuca, . . . 1,000 



It must be remembered that there are multitudes of 
fruits and vegetable productions not enumerated above, 
which do not enter into commerce, and which grow wild. 
No account is taken of them. In the hands of a thrifty 
population, Cuba would blossom like a rose, as it is a gar- 
den growing wild, cultivated here and there in patches, but 
capable of supporting in ease a population of ten times its 
density. 

About the coffee plantations, and, indeed, throughout the 
rural parts of the island, there is an insect called a cucullos, 
answering in its nature to our fire-fly, though quadruple its 
size, which floats in phosphorescent clouds over the vegeta- 
tion. One at first sight is apt to compare them to a shower 
of stars. They come in multitudes, immediately after the 
wet or rainy season sets in, and there is consequently great 
rejoicing among the slaves and children, as well as children 
of a larger growth. They are caught by the slaves and 
confined in tiny cages of wicker, giving them sufficient light 
for convenience in their cabins at night, and, indeed, form- 
ing all the lamps they are permitted to have. Many are 
brought into the city and sold by the young Creoles, a half- 



154 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

dozen for a paseta (twenty-five cents). Ladies not unfre- 
quently carry a small cage of silver attached to their brace- 
lets, containing four or five of them, and the light thus 
emitted is like a candle. Some ladies wear a belt of them 
at night, ingeniously fastened about the waist, and some- 
times even a necklace, the effect thus produced being highly 
amusing. In the ball-rooms they are sometimes worn in 
the flounces of the ladies' dresses, and they seem nearly as 
brilliant as diamonds. Strangely enough, there is a natural 
hook near the head of the Cuban fire-fly, by which it can 
be attached to any part of the dress without any apparent 
injury to the insect itself; this the writer has seen appa- 
rently demonstrated, though, of course, it could not be 
strictly made clear. The town ladies pet these cucullos, 
and feed them regularly with sugar cane, of which the 
insects partake with infinite relish ; but on the plantations, 
when a fresh supply is wanted, they have only to wait until 
the twilight deepens, and a myriad can be secured without 
trouble. 

The Cubans have a queer, but yet excellent mode of 
harnessing their oxen, similar to that still in vogue among 
eastern countries. The yoke is placed behind the horns, 
at the roots, and so fastened to them with thongs that they 
draw, or, rather, push by them, without chafing. The 
animals always have a hole perforated in their nostrils, 
through which a rope is passed, serving as reins, and ren- 
dering them extremely tractable ; the wildest and most 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 155 

stubborn animals are completely subdued by this mode of 
controlling them, and can be led unresisting anywhere. 
This mode of harnessing seems to enable the animal to bring 
more strength to bear upon the purpose for which he is 
employed, than when the yoke is placed, as is the case with 
us, about the throat and shoulders. It is laid down in 
natural history that the greatest strength of horned animals 
lies in the head and neck, but, in placing the yoke on the 
breast, we get it out of reach of both head and neck, and 
the animal draws the load behind by the mere force of the 
weight and impetus of body, as given by the limbs. 
Would n't it be worth while to break a yoke of steers to this 
mode, and test the matter at the next Connecticut plough- 
ing-match ? We merely suggest the thing. 

The Cuban horse deserves more than a passing notice in 
this connection. He is a remarkably valuable animal. 
Though small and delicate of limb, he can carry a great 
weight; and his gait is a sort of march, something 
like our pacing horses, and remarkably easy under the 
saddle. They have great power of endurance, are small 
eaters, and very docile and easy to take care of. The 
Montero inherits all the love of his Moorish ancestors 
for the horse, and never stirs abroad without him. He 
considers himself established for life when he possesses a 
good horse, a sharp Toledo blade, and a pair of silver spurs, 
and from very childhood is accustomed to the saddle. 
They tell you long stories of their horses, and would make 



156 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

them descended direct from the Kochlani,* if you will per- 
mit them. Their size may readily be arrived at from the 
fact that they rarely weigh over six hundred pounds ; but 
they are very finely proportioned. 

The visitor, as he passes inland, will frequently observe 
upon the fronts of the clustering dwelling-houses attempts 
at representations of birds and various animals, looking 
like anything but what they are designed to depict, the 
most striking characteristic being the gaudy coloring and 
remarkable size. Pigeons present the colossal appearance 
of ostriches, and dogs are exceedingly elephantine in their 
proportions. Especially in the suburbs of Havana may 
this queer fancy be observed to a great extent, where 
attempts are made to depict domestic scenes, and the per- 
sons of either sex engaged in appropriate occupations. If 
such ludicrous objects were met with anywhere else but in 
Cuba, they would be called caricatures, but here they are 
regarded with the utmost complacency, and innocently con- 
sidered as ornamental, f Somehow this is a very general 
passion among the humbler classes, and is observable in the 
vicinity of Matanzas and Cardenas, as well as far inland, at 



*" Those horses, called by the Arabians Kochlani, of whom a written 
genealogy has been kept for two thousand years. They are said to derive 
their origin from King Solomon's steeds." — Niebuhr. 

t " On the fronts of the shops and houses, and on plastered walls by the 
way-side, you continually see painted birds, and beasts, and creeping 
things, men and women in their various vocations and amusements, and 
some things and some images not strictly forbidden by the letter of the 
commandment, being like nothing in heaven above, or in the earth 
beneath, or in the waters under the earth ! " — Rev. Abiel Abbot's Letters. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 157 

the small hamlets. The exterior of the town houses is 
generally tinted blue, or some brown color, to protect the 
eyes of the inhabitants from the powerful reflection of the 
ever-shining sun. 

One of the most petty and annoying experiences that the 
traveller upon the island is sure to meet with, is the arbi- 
trary tax of time, trouble and money to which he is sure 
to be subjected by the petty officials of every rank in the 
employment of government ; for, by a regular and legalized 
system of arbitrary taxation upon strangers, a large rev- 
enue is realized. Thus, the visitor is compelled to pay 
some five dollars for a landing permit, and a larger sum, 
say seven dollars, to get away again. If he desires to pass 
out of the city where he has landed, a fresh permit and 
passport are required, at a further expense, though you 
bring one from home signed by the Spanish consul of the 
port where you embarked, and have already been adjudged 
by the local authorities. Besides all this, you are watched, 
and your simplest movements noted down and reported 
daily to the captain of police, who takes the liberty of stop- 
ping and examining all your newspapers, few of which are 
ever permitted to be delivered to their address ; and, if you 
are thought to be a suspicious person, your letters, like 
your papers, are unhesitatingly devoted to "government 
purposes." 

An evidence of the jealous care which is exercised to 
prevent strangers from carrying away any information in 
14 



158 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

detail relative to the island, was evinced to the writer in a 
tangible form on one occasion in the Paseo de Isabella. A 
young French artist had opened his portfolio, and was 
sketching one of the prominent statues that grace the spot, 
when an officer stepped up to him, and, taking possession of 
his pencil and other materials, conducted him at once before 
some city official within the walls of Havana. Here he was 
informed that he could not be allowed to sketch even a tree 
without a permit signed by the captain-general. As this 
was the prominent object of the Frenchman's visit to the 
island, and as he was really a professional artist sketching 
for self-improvement, he succeeded, after a while, in con- 
vincing the authorities of these facts, and he was then, as a 
great favor, supplied with a permit (for which he was com- 
pelled to pay an exorbitant fee), which guaranteed to him 
the privilege of sketching, with certain restrictions as to 
fortifications, military posts, and harbor views ; the same, 
however, to expire after ninety days from the date. 

The great value and wealth of the island has been kept 
comparatively secret by this Japan-like watchfulness ; and 
hence, too, the great lack of reliable information, statistical 
or otherwise, relating to its interests, commerce, products, 
population, modes and rates of taxation, etc. ^Jealous to 
the very last degree relative to the possession of Cuba, the 
home government has exhausted its ingenuity in devising 
restrictions upon its inhabitants; while, with a spirit of 
avarice also goaded on by necessity, it has yearly added to 



/ 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 159 

the burthen of taxation upon the people to an unparalleled ) 
extent. ) The cord may be severed, and the overstrained 
bow will spring back to its native and upright position ! 
The Cubans are patient and long-suffering, that is suf- 
ficiently obvious to all; and yet Spain may break the 
camel's back by one more feather ! 

The policy that has suppressed all statistical information, 
all historical record of the island, all accounts of its current 
prosperity and growth, is a most short-sighted one, and as 
unavailing in its purpose as it would be to endeavor to keep 
secret the diurnal revolutions of the earth. No official 
public chart of the harbor of Havana has ever been issued 
by the Spanish government, no maps of it given by the 
home government as authentic ; they would draw a screen 
over this tropical jewel, lest its dazzling brightness should 
tempt the cupidity of some other nation. All this effort at 
secrecy is little better than childishness on their part, since 
it is impossible, with all their precautions, to keep these 
matters secret. It is well known that our war department 
at "Washington contains faithful sectional and complete 
drawings of every important fortification in Cuba, and even 
the most reliable charts and soundings of its harbors, bays 
and seaboard generally. 

TThe political condition of Cuba is precisely what might 
be expected of a Castilian colony thus ruled, and governed 
by such a policy. Like the home government, she presents 
a remarkable instance of stand-still policy ; and from one 



160 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

of the most powerful kingdoms, and one of the most 
wealthy, is now the humblest and poorest. Other nations 
have labored and succeeded in the race of progress, while 
her adherence to ancient institutions, and her dignified 
scorn of " modern innovations," amount in fact to a species 
of retrogression, which has placed her far below all her 
sister governments of Europe. The true Hidalgo spirit, 
which wraps itself up in an antique garb, and shrugs its 
shoulders at the advance of other countries, still rules over 
the beautiful realm of Ferdinand and Isabella, and its 
high-roads still boast their banditti and worthless gipsies, 
as a token of the declining power of the Castilian crown. 



CHAPTER XII. 

tacon's summary mode oe justice. 

Probably of all the governors-general that have filled 
the post in Cuba none is better known abroad, or has left 
more monuments of his enterprise, than Tacon. His repu- 
tation at Havana is of a somewhat doubtful character ; for, 
though he followed out with energy the various improve- 
ments suggested by Aranjo, yet his modes of procedure 
were so violent, that he was an object of terror to the peo- 
ple generally, rather than of gratitude. He vastly im- 
proved the appearance of the capital and its vicinity, built 
the new prison, rebuilt the governor's palace, constructed 
a military road to the neighboring forts, erected a spacious 
theatre and market-house (as related in connection with 
Marti), arranged a new public walk, and opened a vast 
parade ground without the city walls, thus laying the foun- 
dation of the new city which has now sprung up in this for- 
merly desolate suburb. He suppressed the gaming-houses, 
and rendered the streets, formerly infested with robbers, as 
secure as those of Boston or New York. But all this was 
14* 



162 HISTORY OF OUEA. 

done with a bold military arm. Life was counted of little 
value, and many of the first people fell before his orders. 

Throughout all his career, there seemed ever to be within 
him a romantic love of justice, and a desire to administer it 
impartially ; and some of the stories, well authenticated, 
illustrating this fact, are still current in Havana. One of 
these, as characteristic of Tacon and his rule, is given in 
this connection, as nearly in the words of the narrator as the 
writer can remember them, listened to in " La Dominica's." 

During the first year of Tacon's governorship, there was 
a young Creole girl, named Miralda Estalez, who kept a 
little cigar-store in the Calle de Mercaderes, and whose 
shop was the resort of all the young men of the town who 
loved a choicely-made and superior cigar. Miralda was 
only seventeen, without mother or father living, and earned 
an humble though sufficient support by her industry in the 
manufactory we have named, and by the sales of her little 
store. She was a picture of ripened tropical beauty, with a 
finely rounded form, a lovely face, of soft, olive tint, and 
teeth that a Tuscarora might envy her. At times, there 
was a dash of languor in her dreamy eye that would have 
warmed an anchorite ; and then her cheerful jests were so 
delicate, yet free, that she had unwittingly turned the heads, 
not to say hearts, of half the young merchants in the 
Calle de Mercaderes. But she dispensed her favors with- 
out partiality ; none of the rich and gay exquisites of 
Havana could say they had ever received any particular 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 163 

acknowledgment from the fair young girl to their warm and 
constant attention. For this one she had a pleasant smile, 
for another a few words of pleasing gossip, and for a third 
a snatch of a Spanish song ; but to none did she give her 
confidence, except to young Pedro Mantanez, a fine-looking 
boatman, who plied between the Punta and Moro Castle, 
on the opposite side of the harbor. 

Pedro was a manly and courageous young fellow, rather 
above his class in intelligence, appearance and associations, 
and pulled his oars with a strong arm and light heart, and 
loved the beautiful Miralda with an ardor romantic in its 
fidelity and truth. He was a sort of leader among the boat- 
men of the harbor for reason of his superior cultivation and 
intelligence, and his quick-witted sagacity was often turned 
for the benefit of his comrades. Many were the noble deeds 
he had done in and about the harbor since a boy, for he had 
followed his calling of a waterman from boyhood, as his 
fathers had done before him. Miralda in turn ardently 
loved Pedro ; and, when he came at night and sat in the 
back part of her little shop, she had always a neat and fra- 
grant cigar for his lips. Now and then, when she could 
steal away from her shop on some holiday, Pedro would 
hoist a tiny sail in the prow of his boat, and securing the 
little stern awning over Miralda's head, would steer out into 
the gulf, and coast along the romantic shore. 

There was a famous roue, well known at this time in 
Havana, named Count Almonte, who had frequently visited 



164 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Miralda's shop, and conceived quite a passion for the girl, 
and, indeed, he had grown to be one of her most liberal 
customers. With a cunning shrewdness and knowledge of 
human nature, the count besieged the heart of his intended-* 
victim without appearing to do so, and carried on his plan 
of operations for many weeks -before the innocent girl even 
suspected his possessing a partiality for her, until one day 
she was surprised by a present from him of so rare and 
costly a nature as to lead her to suspect the donor's inten- 
tions at once, and to promptly decline the offered gift. 
Undismayed by this, still the count continued his profuse 
patronage in a way to which Miralda could find no plausible 
pretext of complaint. 

1 1 last, seizing upon what he considered a favorable 
moment, Count Almonte declared his passion to Miralda, 
besought her to come and be the mistress of his broad and 
rich estates at Cerito, near the city, and offered all the 
promises of wealth, favor and fortune ; but in vain. The 
pure-minded girl scorned his offer, and bade him never more 
to insult her by visiting her shop. Abashed but not con- 
founded, the count retired, but only to weave a new snare 
whereby he could entangle her, for he was not one to be so 
easily thwarted. 

One afternoon, not long after this, as the twilight was 
settling over the town, a file of soldiers halted just oppo- 
site the door of the little cigar-shop, when a young man, 
wearing a lieutenant's insignia, entered, and asked the 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 165 

attendant if her name was Miralda Estalez, to which she 
timidly responded. 

" Then you will please to come with me." 

" By what authority ? " asked the trembling girl. 

" The order of the governor-general." 

" Then I must obey you,'fc she answered ; and prepared 
to follow him at once. 

Stepping to the door with her, the young officer directed 
his men to march on; and, getting into a volante, told 
Miralda they would drive to the guard-house. But, to the 
surprise of the- girl, she soon after discovered that they 
were rapidly passing the city gates, and immediately after 
were dashing off on the road to Cerito. Then it was that 
she began to fear some trick had been played upon her ; and 
these fears were soon confirmed by the volante' s turning 
down the long alley of palms that led to the estate of Count 
Almonte. It was in vain to expostulate now ; she felt that 
she was in the power of the reckless nobleman, and the pre- 
tended officer and soldiers were his own people, who had 
adopted the disguise of the Spanish army uniform. 

Count Almonte met her at the door, told her to fear no 
violence, that her wishes should be respected in all things 
save her personal liberty, — that he trusted, in time, to per- 
suade her to look more favorably upon him, and that in all 
things he was her slave. She replied contemptuously to his 
words, and charged him with the cowardly trick by which 
he had gained control of her liberty. But she was left 



166 HISTORY. OF CUBA. 

by herself, though watched by his orders at all times to pre- 
vent her escape. 

She knew very well that the power and will of Count 
Almonte were too strong for any humble friend of hers to 
attempt to thwart ; and yet she somehow felt a conscious 
strength in Pedro, and secretly cherished the idea that he 
would discover her place of confinement, and adopt some 
means to deliver her. The stiletto is the constant compan- 
ion of the lower classes, and Miralda had been used to wear 
one even in her store against contingency ; but she now 
regarded the tiny weapon with peculiar satisfaction, and 
slept with it in her bosom ! 

Small was the clue by which Pedro Mantanez discovered 
the trick of Count Almonte. First this was found out, 
then that circumstance, and these, being put together, they 
led to other results, until the indefatigable lover was at last 
fully satisfied that he had discovered her place of confine- 
ment. Disguised as a friar of the order of San Felipe, he 
sought Count Almonte's gates at a favorable moment, met 
Miralda, cheered her with fresh hopes, and retired to 
arrange some certain plan for her delivery. There was 
time to think now ; heretofore he had not permitted himself 
even an hour's sleep; but she was safe, — that is, not in 
immediate danger, — and he could breathe more freely. He 
knew not with whom to advise ; he feared to speak to those 
above him in society, lest they might betray his purpose to 
the count, and his own liberty, by some means, be thus 



HISTORY OE CUBA. 167 

jeopardized. He could only consider with himself; he must 
be his own counsellor in this critical case. 

At last, as if in despair, he started to his feet, one day, 
and exclaimed to himself, " Why not go to head-quarters at 
once ? why not see the governor-general, and tell him the 
whole truth 1 Ah ! see him ? — how is that to be effected ? 
And then this Count Almonte is a nobleman ! They say 
Tacon loves justice. We shall see. I toill go to the gov- 
ernor-general ; it cannot do any harm, if it does not do 
any good. I can but try." And Pedro did seek the gover- 
nor. True, he did not at once get audience of him, — not 
the first, nor the second, nor third time: but he persevered, 
and was admitted at last. Here he told his story in a free, 
manly voice, undisguisedly and open in all things, so that 
Tacon was pleased. 

" And the girl?" asked the governor-general, over whose 
countenance a dark scowl had gathered. ' l Is she thy sis- 
ter?" 

"No, ExGelencia, she is dearer still; she is my be- 
trothed." 

The governor, bidding him come nearer, took a golden 
cross from his table, and, handing it to the boatman, as he 
regarded him searchingly, said, 

" Swear that what you have related to me is true, as you 
hope for heaven !" 

M I swear ! " said Pedro, kneeling and kissing the em- 
blem with simple reverence. 



168 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

The governor turned to his table, wrote a few brief lines, 
and, touching a bell, summoned a page from an adjoining 
room, whom he ordered to send the captain of the guard to 
him. Prompt as were all who had any connection with the 
governor's household, the officer appeared at once, and 
received the written order, with directions to bring Count 
Almonte and a young girl named Miralda immediately 
before him. Pedro was sent to an anteroom, and the busi- 
ness of the day passed on as usual in the reception-hall of 
the governor. 

Less than two hours had transpired when the count and 
Miralda stood before Tacon. Neither knew the nature of 
the business which had summoned them there. Almonte 
half suspected the truth, and the poor girl argued to herself 
that her fate could not but be improved by the interference, 
let its nature be what it might. 

" Count Almonte, you doubtless know why I have or- 
dered you to appear here." 

" Excelencia, I fear that I have been indiscreet," was 
the reply. 

" You adopted the uniform of the guards for your own 
private purposes upon this young girl, did you not ? " 

" Excelencia, I cannot deny it." 

" Declare, upon your honor, Count Almonte, whether 
she is unharmed whom you have thus kept a prisoner." 

" Excelencia, she is as pure as when she entered beneath 
my roof." was the truthful reply. « 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 169 

The governor turned, and whispered something to his 
page, then continued his questions to the count, while he 
made some minutes upon paper. Pedro was now summoned 
to explain some matter, and, as he entered, the governor- 
general turned his back for one moment as if to seek for 
some papers upon his table, while Miralda was pressed in 
the boatman's arms. It was but for a moment, and the 
next, Pedro was bowing humbly before Tacon. A few 
moments more and the governor's page returned, accom- 
panied by a monk of the church of Santa Clara, with the 
emblems of his office. 

" Holy father," said Tacon, " you will bind the hands 
of this Count Almonte and Miralda Estalez together in the 
bonds of wedlock ! " 

" Excelencia ! " exclaimed the count, in amazement. 

" Not a word, Senor ; it is your part to obey ! " 

n My nobility, Excelencia ! " 

" Is forfeited ! " said Tacon. 

Count Almonte had too many evidences before his mind's 
eye of Tacon's mode of administering justice and of enforc- 
ing his own will to dare to rebel, and he doggedly yielded 
in silence. Poor Pedro, not daring to speak, was half- 
crazed to see the prize he had so long coveted thus about to 
be torn from him. In a few moments the ceremony was 
performed, the trembling and bewildered girl not daring to 
thwart the governor's orders, and the priest declared them 
husband and wife. The captain of the guard was summoned 
15 



170 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

and despatched with some written order, and, in a few sub- 
sequent moments, Count Almonte, completely subdued and 
broken-spirited, was ordered to return to his plantation. 
Pedro and Miralda were directed to remain in an adjoining 
apartment to that which had been the scene of this singular 
procedure. Count Almonte mounted his horse, and, with a 
single attendant, soon passed out of the t city gates. But 
hardly had he passed the corner of the Paseo, when a dozen 
musketeers fired a volley upon him, and he fell a corpse 
upon the road ! 

His body was quietly removed, and the captain of the 
guard, who had witnessed the act, made a minute upon his 
order as to the time and place, and, mounting his horse, 
rode to the governor's palace, entering the presence cham- 
ber just as Pedro and Miralda were once more summoned 
before the governor. 

" Excelencia," said the officer, returning the order, " it 
is executed!" 

" Is the count dead * " 

" Excelencia, yes." 

" Proclaim, in the usual manner, the marriage of Count 
Almonte and Miralda Estalez, and also that she is his legal 
widow, possessed of his titles and estates. See that a proper 
officer attends her to the count's estate, and enforces this 
decision." Then, turning to Pedro Mantanez, he said, " No 
man nor woman in this island is so humble but that they 
may claim justice of Tacon ! " 

The story furnishes its own moral. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Consumption of tobacco — The universal cigar — Lady smokers — The 
fruits of Cuba — Flour a prohibited article — The royal palm — West 
Indian trees — Snakes, animals, etc. — The Cuba blood-hound — Mode 
of training him — Eemarkable instinct — Importation of slaves — Their 
cost — Various African tribes — Superstitious belief — Tattooing — 
Health of the negroes — Slave laws of the island — Food of the negroes 
— Spanish law of emancipation — General treatment of the slaves. 

/The consumption of tobacco,* in the form of cigars, is 
absolutely enormous in the island. Every man, woman and 
child, seems to smoke ; and it strikes one as rather peculiar, 
to say the least of it, to see a lady smoking her cigarito in 
the parlor, or on the verandah ; but this is very common. 
The men, of all degrees, smoke, and smoke everywhere ; in 
the houses, in the street, in the theatre, in the cafes, in the 
counting-room ; eating, drinking, and, truly, it would seem, 
sleeping, they smoke, smoke, smoke. The slave and his 
master, the maid and her mistress, boy and man, — all, all 
smoke ; and it is really odd that vessels don't scent Havana 
far out at sea before they heave in sight of its headlands. 



* The name tobacco is said to have been that of the pipe used by the 
native Indians to inhale the smoke with, consisting of a small tube, with 
two branches intended to enter the nostrils. 



172 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

No true Havanese ever moves a foot without his portable 
armory of cigars, as indispensable to him as is his quiver to 
the wild Indian, and he would feel equally lost without it. 
Some one has facetiously said that the cigar ought to be the 
national emblem of Cuba/V 

The gentlemen consume from ten to twelve cigars per 
day, and many of the women half that number, saying 
nothing of the juvenile portion of the community. The 
consequence of this large and increasing consumption, 
including the heavy export of the article, is to employ a 
vast number of hands in the manufacture of cigars, and the 
little stores and stalls where they are made are plentifully 
sprinkled all over the city, at every corner and along the 
principal streets. It is true that the ladies of the best 
classes in Havana have abandoned the practice of smoking, 
or at least they have ostensibly done so, never indulging 
absolutely in public ; but the writer has seen a noted beauty 
AYhose teeth were much discolored by the oil which is engen- 
dered in the use of the paper cigars, thus showing that, 
although they no longer smoke in public, yet the walls of 
their boudoirs are no strangers to the fumes of tobacco. 
This is the only form in which the weed is commonly used 
here. You rarely meet a snuff-taker, and few, if any, chew 
tobacco. It is astonishing how passionately fond of smoking 
the negroes become ; with heavy pipes, well filled, they 
inhale the rich narcotic, driving it out at the nostrils in a 
slow, heavy stream, and half dozing over the dreamy and 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 173 

exhilarating process. They are fully indulged in this taste 
by their masters, whether in town, or inland upon the plan- 
tations. The postilions who wait for fare in the streets 
pass four-fifths of their time in this way, and dream over 
their pipes of pure Havana. 

We can have but a poor idea, at the north, of tropical 
fruits, for only a portion of them are of a nature to admit 
of exportation, and those must be gathered in an unripe 
condition in order to survive a short sea voyage. The 
orange in Boston, and the orange in Havana, are vastly dif- 
ferent ; the former has been picked green and ripened on 
ship-board, the latter was on the tree a few hours before you 
purchased it, and ripened upon its native stem. So of the 
bananas, one of the most delightful of all West India fruits, 
and which grow everywhere in Cuba with prodigal profuse- 
ness. The principal fruits of the island are the banana, 
mango, pomegranate, orange, pine-apple,* zapota, tamarind, 
citron, fig, cocoa, lemon, rose-apple and bread-fruit. Though 
any of these are eaten freely of at all hours, yet the orange 
seems to be the Creole's favorite, and he seldom rises from 
his bed in the morning until he has drank his cup of strong 
coffee, and eaten three or four oranges, brought fresh and 
prepared to him by a slave. The practice is one which the 
visitor falls very naturally into, and finds most agreeable. 
They have a saying that " the orange is gold in the morn- 

* This highly-flavored and excellent fruit is so abundant in Cuba that 
the best sell in the market at a cent apiece. 

15* 



174 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

ing, silver at noon, and lead at night." The most singular 
of these varieties of fruits (by no means embracing all) is 
the rose-apple, which, when eaten, has the peculiar and very 
agreeable flavor of otto of rose, and this is so strong that to 
eat more than one at a time is almost unpleasant. It has a 
very sweet taste, and flavors some soups finely. Of these 
fruit trees, the lemon is decidedly the most ornamental and 
pretty, for, though small and dwarfish, like the American 
quince, yet it hangs with flowers, small lemons, and ripe 
fruit, all together, reminding one of the eastern Alma* 
and forming an uncommon and beautiful sight. This agree- 
able phenomenon will surprise you at every turn upon the 
coffee plantations. 

But the article of food most required in the island is 
flour, while the importation of it is made so unreasonably 
expensive as to amount to a positive prohibition upon the 
article. On foreign flour there is a fixed duty of ten dol- 
lars, to which if we add the one and a half per cent., with 
other regular charges, the duty will amount to about ten 
dollars and fifty cents per barrel. This enormous tax on 
flour prevents its use altogether in the island, except by the 
wealthier classes. True, there is a home-made, Spanish 
article, far inferior, which costs somewhat less, being im- 
ported from far-off Spain without the prohibitory clause. 
The estimate of the consumption of flour in this country 

* " You never can cast your eyes on this tree, but you meet there either 
blossoms or fruit." Nieuhoff. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 175 

gives one and a half barrel per head, per annum ; but let 
us suppose that the free population consume but one. The 
free population — that is, the whites exclusively, not in- 
cluding the large number of free negroes — numbers over 
six hundred thousand ; if the island belonged to this coun- 
try, there would immediately arise a demand for six hundred 
thousand barrels of flour per annum, for the duty would no 
longer exist as a prohibition upon this necessary article. At 
four dollars and fifty cents per barrel, this would make the 
sum of two million seven hundred thousand dollars ; and if 
we allow half a barrel each to the slaves and free blacks, 
which would be the natural result, being not only the best 
but cheapest food, we have an annual demand of from four 
to five hundred thousand barrels more of the great staple 
production of the United States. This is an item worth 
considering by political economists. At the present time, 
the imports into this country from thence exceed our ex- 
ports to Cuba to the amount of nearly one million of dol- 
lars annually. 

But we were writing of the vegetable productions of the 
island, when this digression occurred. 

The Royal Palm is the noblest tree of Cuba, rising from 
thirty to fifty feet, and sometimes even twice this height, 
with a straight stem, while from the top spring the broad 
and beautiful leaves, in a knot, like a plume of ostrich 
feathers. The bark is" equally divided by ornamental ring- 
lets encircling it, each one marking a year of its age. A 



176 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

peculiarity of this tree is, that it has no substance in the in- 
terior of the trunk,* yet the outside, to the thickness of an 
inch and more, makes the finest of boards, and, -when sea- 
soned, will turn a board nail with one stroke of the hammer. 
The top of the palm yields a vegetable which is much used 
upon the table, and, when boiled, resembles in flavor our 
cauliflower. The cocoa-nut tree very much resembles the 
palm, the branches diverging, like the ribs of an umbrella, 
from one common centre, among which the fruit hangs in 
tempting clusters far out of reach from the ground. The 
plantain, with its profuse clusters of finger-like fruit, grows 
low like the banana, which it vastly resembles, and the en- 
tire trunk of both are renewed yearly ; the old stock, after 
yielding its crop, decaying rapidly, and forming the most 
nutritious matter for the soil that can be had. Many of 
the hedges through the plantations are formed of aloes, of 
a large and luxuriant growth, with dagger-like points, and 
stiff", long leaves, bidding defiance to ingress or egress, yet 
ever ornamented with a fragrant cup-like flower. Lime 
hedges are also very abundant, with their clusters of white 
blossoms, and there is a vast supply of mahogany and other 
precious woods, in the extensive forests. 

It is somewhat remarkable that there is not a poisonous 
reptile or animal of any sort in Cuba. Snakes of various 

* It is remarkable that the palm tree, which grows so lofty, has not a 
root as big as a finger of the human hand. Its roots are small, thread- 
like, and almost innumerable. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 177 

species abound, but are said to be perfectly inoffensive, 
though sometimes destructive to domestic fowls. During a 
pleasant trip between San Antonio and Alquizar, in a vo- 
lante with a planter, this subject happened to be under dis- 
cussion, when the writer discovered a snake, six feet long, 
and as large at the middle as his arm, directly before the 
volante. On suddenly exclaiming, and pointing it out, the 
planter merely replied by giving its species, and declaring 
that a child might sleep with it unharmed. In the mean- 
time, it was a relief to see the innocent creature hasten out 
of the way and secrete itself in a neighboring hedge. Liz- 
ards, tarantulas and chameleons, abound, but are considered 
harmless. The writer has awakened in the morning and 
found several lizards creeping on the walls of his apartment. 
Only one small quadruped is found in Cuba that is sup- 
posed to be indigenous, and that is called the hutia, much 
resembling a mouse, but without the tail. 
A The Cuban blood-hound, of which we hear so much, is 
not„..a native of the island, but belongs to an imported breed, 
resembling the English mastiff, though with longer nose and 
limbs. He is naturally a fierce, blood-thirsty animal, but 
the particular qualities which fit him for tracing the run- 
away slaves are wholly acquired by careful and expert 
training. This training of the hounds to fit them for fol- 
lowing and securing the runaway negroes is generally en- 
trusted to a class of men who go about from one plantation 
to another, and who are usually Monteros or French over- 



178 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

seers out of employment. Each plantation keeps more or 
less of these dogs, more as a precautionary measure, how- 
ever, than for actual use, for so certain is the slave that he 
will be instantly followed as soon as he is missed, and easily 
traced by the hounds, of whose instinct he is fully aware, 
that he rarely attempts to escape from his master. In one 
respect this acts as a positive advantage to the negroes them- 
selves, for the master, feeling a confidence relative to their 
possession and faithfulness, and well knowing the ease with 
which they can at once be secured should they run away, 
is thus enabled to leave them comparatively free to roam 
about the plantation, and they undergo no surveillance ex- 
cept during working hours, when an overseer is of course 
always somewhere about, looking after them, and prompt- 
ing those that are indolent. 

The blood-hounds are taken when quite young, tied up 
securely, and a negro boy is placed to tease and annoy 
them, occasionally administering a slight castigation upon 
the animals, taking care to keep out of the reach of their 
teeth. This whipping is generally administered under the 
direction of the trainer, who takes good care that it shall 
not be sufficiently severe to really hurt the dogs or crush 
their spirit of resistance. As the dogs grow older, negro 
men, in place of boys, are placed to fret and irritate them, 
occasionally administering, as before, slight castigations upon 
the dogs, but under the same restrictions ; and they also re- 
sort to the most ingenious modes of vexing the animals to 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 179 

the utmost, until the very sight of a negro will make them 
howl. Finally, after a slave has worried them to the 
last degree, he is given a good start, and the ground is 
marked beforehand, a tree being selected, when the dogs 
are let loose after him. Of course they pursue him 
with open jaws and the speed of the wind ; but the slave 
climbs the tree, and is secure from the vengeance of the 
animals. \ 

This is the exact position in which the master desires 
them to place his runaway slave — " tree him," and then 
set up a howl that soon brings up the hunters. They are 
never set upon the slaves to bite or injure them, but only 
placed upon their track to follow and hunt them. So per- 
fect of scent are these animals, that the master, when he is 
about to pursue a runaway, will find some clothing, however 
slight, which the missing slave has left behind him, and 
giving it to the hounds to smell, can then rely upon them to 
follow the slave through whole plantations of his class, none 
of whom they will molest, but, with their noses to the 
ground, will lead straight to the woods, or wherever the 
slave has sought shelter. On the plantations these dogs 
are always kept chained when not in actual use, the negroes 
not being permitted to feed or to play with them; they are 
scrupulously fed by the overseer or master, and thus consti- 
tute the animal police of the plantation. In no wise can 
they be brought to attack a white man, and it would be 
difficult for such to provoke them to an expression of rage 



180 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

or anger, while their early and systematic training makes 
them feel a natural enmity to the blacks, which is of course 
most heartily reciprocated, y 
/ Cuba has been called-the hot-bed of slavery ; and it is 
in a certain sense true. The largest plantations own from 
three to five hundred negroes, which establishments require 
immense investments of capital successfully to manage. A 
slave, when first landed, is worth, if sound, from four to 
five hundred dollars, and more as he becomes acclimated 
and instructed, their dull natures requiring a vast deal of 
watchful training before they can be brought to any positive 
usefulness, in doing which the overseers have found kind- 
ness go a vast deal farther than roughness. Trifling re- 
wards, repaying the first efforts at breaking in of the newly 
imported negro, establishes a good understanding at once, 
and thus they soon grow very tractable, though they do not 
for a long time understand a single word of Spanish that 
is addressed to them. 

These negroes are from various African tribes, and their 
characteristics are visibly marked, so that their nationality 
is at once discernible, even to a casual observer. Thus the 
Congos are small in stature, but agile and good laborers ; 
the Fantee are a larger race, revengeful, and apt to prove 
uneasy ; those from the Gold Coast are still more powerful, 
and command higher prices, and when well treated make 
excellent domestic servants. The Ebros are less black than 
the others, being almost mulatto. There is a tribe known 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 181 

as the Ashantees, very rare in Cuba, as they are powerful 
at home, and consequently are rarely conquered in battle. 
or taken prisoners by the shore tribes in Africa, who sell 
them to the slave factories on the coast. They are prized, 
like those from the Gold Coast, for their strength. Another 
tribe, known as the Carrobalees, are highly esteemed by the 
planters, but yet they are avoided when first imported, from 
the fact that they have a belief and hope, very powerful 
among them, that after death they will return to their native 
land, and therefore, actuated by a love of home, these poor 
exiles are prone to suicide. This superstition is also be- 
lieved in by some other tribes ; and when a death thus 
occurs, the planter, as an example to the rest, and to prevent 
a like occurrence among them, burns the body, and scatters 
the ashes to the wind ! 

The tattooed faces, bodies and limbs, of the larger portion 
of the slaves, especially those found inland upon the plan- 
tations, indicate their African birth; those born upon the 
island seldom mark themselves thus, and being more intel- 
ligent than their parents, from mingling with civilization, 
are chosen generally for city labor, becoming postilions, 
house-servants, draymen, laborers upon the wharves, and the 
like, presenting physical developments that a white man 
cannot but envy on beholding, and showing that for some 
philosophical reason the race thus transplanted improves 
physically, at least. They are remarkably healthy ; indeed, 
all classes of slaves are so, except when an epidemic breaks 
16 



182 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

out among them, and then it rages more fearfully far than 
with the whites. Thus the cholera and small-pox always 
sweep them off by hundreds when these diseases get fairly 
introduced among them. If a negro is sick he requires just 
twice as much medicine as a white man to affect him, but 
for what reason is a mystery in the practice of the healing 
art. The prevailing illness with them is bowel complaints, 
to which they are always more or less addicted, and their 
food is therefore regulated to obviate this trouble as far as 
possible, but they always eat freely of the fruits about them, 
so ripe and inviting, and so plentiful, too, that half the crop 
and more, usually rots upon the ground ungathered. The 
swine are frequently let loose to hejp clear the ground of 
its overburdened and ripened fruits. I 
I The slaves upon the plantations in all outward circum- 
stances seem quite thoughtless and happy ; the slave code of 
the island, which regulates their government, is never wide- 
ly departed from. The owners are obliged to instruct them 
all in the Catholic faith, and they are each baptized as soon 
as they can understand the signification of the ceremony. 
The law also provides that the master shall give a certain 
quantity and variety of food to his slaves ; but on this score 
slaves rarely if ever have cause of complaint, as it is plainly 
for the planter's interest to keep them in good condition. 
There is one redeeming feature in Spanish slavery, as con- 
trasted with that of our southern country, and that is, that 
the laws favor emancipation. If a slave by his industry is 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 183 

able to accumulate money enough to pay his first cost to 
his master, however unwilling the planter may be to part 
with him, the law guarantees him his freedom. This the 
industrious slave can accomplish at farthest in seven years, 
with the liberty and convenience which all are allowed. 
Each one, for instance, is permitted to keep a pig, and to 
cultivate a small piece of land for his own purposes, by 
raising corn ; the land yielding two crops to the year, they 
can render a pig fat enough, and the drovers pay fifty dol- 
lars apiece to the slaves for good ones. This is a redeeming 
feature, but it is a bitter pill at best. \ 

There are doubtless instances of cruelty towards the 
slaves, but the writer is forced to acknowledge that he 
never witnessed a single evidence of this during his stay in 
the island,^ and, while he would be the last person to defend 
slavery as an institution, yet he is satisfied that the practi- 
cal evils of its operation are vastly overrated by ignorant 
persons. v It is so obviously for the planter's interest to treat 
his slaves kindly, and to have due consideration for their 
health and comfort — that he must be a very short-sighted 
being not to realize this. What man would under-feed, 
ill-treat, or poorly care for a horse that he expected to 
serve him, in return, promptly and well % We have only 
to consider the subject in this light for a moment, to see 



* " I believe the lash is seldom applied ; I have never seen it, nor have I 
seen occasion for it." — Rev. Abiel Abbot's Letters. 



184 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Low impossible it is that a system of despotism, severity 
and cruelty, would be exercised by a Cuban master towards 
his slaves. Let no ingenious person distort these remarks 
into a pro-slavery argument. God forbid ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Pecuniary value of the slave-trade to Havana — The slave clippers — 
First introduction of slaves into Cuba — Monopoly of the traffic by 
England — Spain's disregard of treaty stipulations — Spanish perfidy 
— Present condition of Spain — Her decadence — Influence upon her 
American possessions — Slaves upon the plantations — The soil of 
Cuba — Mineral wealth of the island — The present condition of the 
people — The influences of American progress — What Cuba might be. 

VLike Liverpool and Boston, in their early days, Havana 
feas'drawn an immense wealth from the slave-trade ; it has 
been the great commercial item in the business for the capi- 
tal year after year, and the fitting out of ventures, the man- 
ning of vessels, and other branches of trade connected there- 
with, have been the sources of uncounted profit to those 
concerned. The vessels employed in this business were 
built with an eye to the utmost speed. Even before the 
notion of clipper ships was conceived, these crafts were built 
on the clipper model, more generally known as Baltimore 
clippers. Over these sharp hulls was spread a quantity of 
canvas that might have served as an outfit for a seventy- 
four. The consummate art displayed in their construction 
was really curious, and they were utterly unfit for any 
16* 



186 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

legitimate commerce. Nor are these vessels by any means 
yet extinct. They hover about the island here and there 
at this very hour ; now lying securely in some sheltered 
bay on the south side, and now seeking a rendezvous at the 
neighboring Isle of Pines. The trade still employs many 
crafts. They mount guns, have a magazine in accordance 
with their tonnage, with false decks that can be shipped and 
unshipped at will. V 

It is well known that the Americans can produce the 
fastest vessels in the world ; and speed is the grand deside- 
ratum with the slaver, consequently Americans are em- 
ployed to build the fleet crafts that sail for the coast of 
Africa. The American builder must of course know the 
purpose for which he constructs these clippers ; and, indeed, 
the writer is satisfied, from personal observation, that these 
vessels are built on speculation, and sent to Cuba to be sold 
to the highest bidder. Of course, being in a measure con- 
traband, they bring large prices, and the temptation is 
strong to construct them, rather than to engage in the more 
regular models. This reference to the subject as connected 
with the commerce of the island, leads us to look back to 
the history of the pernicious traffic in human beings, from 
its earliest commencement in Cuba, and to trace its begin- 
ning, progress and main features. 

It has been generally supposed that Las Casas first sug- 
gested the plan of substituting African slave labor for that 
of the Indians in Cuba, he having noticed that the natives, 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 187 

entirely unused to labor, sunk under the hard tasks im- 
posed upon them, while the robuster negroes thrived 
under the same circumstances. But negro slavery did not 
originate with Las Casas. Spain had been engaged in the 
slave trade for years, and long prior to the discovery of 
America by Columbus; and Zufiiga tells us that they 
abounded in Seville. Consequently Spanish emigrants 
from the old world brought their slaves with them to Cuba, 
and the transportation of negro slaves, born in slavery 
among Christians, was sanctioned expressly by royal ordi- 
nances. Ferdinand sent over fifty slaves to labor in the 
royal mines. Las Casas pleaded for the further employ- 
ment of negroes, and consequent extension of the slave 
trade. "But covetousness," says Bancroft, "and not a 
mistaken benevolence, established the slave trade, which 
had nearly received its development before the charity of 
Las Casas was heard in defence of the Indians. Reason, 
policy and religion alike condemned the traffic." 

Cardinal Ximenes, the grand inquisitor of Spain, pro- 
tested against the introduction of negroes in Hispaniola, 
foreseeing the dangers incident to their increase ; and three 
centuries later the successful revolt of the slaves of Hayti, 
the first place in America which received African slaves, 
justified his intelligent predictions and forebodings. Eng- 
land embarked largely in the slave trade, and Queen Eliza- 
beth shared in the guilty profits of the traffic. In the year 
1713, when, after a period of rest, the slave trade was 



188 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

resumed, the English purchased of Spain a monopoly of the 
trade with the Spanish colonies, and she carried it on with 
great vigor and pecuniary success, until she had completely 
stocked these islands with blacks. In the year 1763 their 
number was estimated at sixty thousand. This fact will 
enable us to appreciate as it deserves the extreme modesty 
of the British government in fomenting abolition schemes in 
the island of Cuba, after contributing so largely to the cre- 
ation of an evil which appears almost irremediable. We 
say a realizing sense of the circumstances of the case will 
enable us rightly to appreciate the character of the British 
government's philanthropy. We applaud England for her 
efforts at the suppression of the slave trade, — a traffic 
which all the powers of Christendom, Spain excepted, have 
united to crush, — but we cannot patiently contemplate her 
efforts to interfere with the internal economy of other coun- 
tries, when she herself, as in the case of the Spanish colo- 
nies and of the United States, has so weighty a share of 
responsibility in the condition of things as they now exist ; 
to say nothing of the social condition of her own subjects, 
which so imperatively demands that her charity should 
begin at home. 

We have said that Spain alone, of the great powers, has 
not done her part in the suppression of the slave trade.* 

* English authorities, — Sir F. Buxton in the van, — declare that the 
extent of the slave trade has but slightly diminished, while the restrictions 
under which it is now carried on renders it more fatal than ever to the 
blacks. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 189 

She is solemnly pledged by treaty stipulations, to make 
unceasing war against it, and yet she tacitly connives at its 
continuance, and all the world knows that slaves are month- 
ly, almost weekly, landed in Cuba. Notorious is it that the 
captains-general have regularly pocketed a fee of one dou- 
bloon or more for every slave landed, and that this has 
been a prolific source of wealth to them. The exceptions to 
this have been few, and the evidences are indisputable. 
Within a league of the capital are several large barracoons, 
as they are called, where the newly-imported slaves are 
kept, and offered for sale in numbers. The very fact that 
these establishments exist so near to Havana, is a circum- 
stance from which each one may draw his own inference. 
No one can travel in Cuba without meeting on the various 
plantations groups of the newly-imported Africans. Yal- 
dez, who strenuously enforced the treaty obligations relative 
to the trade, without regard to private interest, was tra- 
duced by the Spaniards, and by their management fell into 
disfavor with his government at home. O'Donnel deluged 
the island with slaves during his administration, and filled 
his coffers with the fees accruing therefrom. Since his time 
the business has gone on, — to be sure less openly, and 
under necessary restrictions, but nevertheless with great 
pecuniary profit. 

At the same time the Spanish authorities have, while 
thus increasing the numbers of savage Africans reduced to 
a state of slavery, constantly endeavored to weaken the 



190 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

bonds of attachment between master and slave, and to fer- 
ment the unnatural hatred of races with the fearful design 
of preparing another St. Domingo for the Cubans, should 
they dare to strike a strenuous blow for freedom. 

We have thus seen that the Spanish crown is directly 
responsible for the introduction of slavery into Cuba, and 
that crown officers, invested with more than vice-regal 
authority, have sanctioned, up to this day, the accumula- 
tion and the aggravation of the evil. It is now clearly 
evident that the slave-trade will continue so long as the 
island of Cuba remains under the Spanish flag. The Brit- 
ish government have, remonstrated again and again with 
Spain, against this long-continued infraction of treaties ; 
but the dogged obstinacy of the Spanish character has been 
proof against remonstrance and menace. She merits the 
loss of Cuba for her persistent treachery and perfidy, leav- 
ing out of the account a long list of foul wrongs practised 
upon the colony, the enormous burthen of taxe&placed upon 
it, and the unequalled rigor of its rule. [The time has 
come when the progress of civilization demands that the 
island shall pass into the hands of some power possessed of 7 
the ability and the will to crush out this remnant of barbar- 
ism. That power is clearly designated by the hand of 
Providence. No European nation can dream of obtaining 
Cuba ; no administration in this country could stand up for 
one moment against the overwhelming indignation of the 
people, should it be weak enough to acquiesce in the trans- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 191 

fer of Cuba to any European power. The island must be 
Spanish or American. Had it been the property of a first- 
rate power, of any other European sovereignty but Spain, 
it would long since have been a cause of war. It is only 
the imbecile weakness of Spain that has thus far protected 
her against the consequences of a continuous course of per- 
fidy, tyranny and outrage. But the impunity of the feeble 
and the forbearance of the strong have their limits ; and 
nations, like individuals, are amenable to the laws of retri- 
butive justice. 

The present condition of Spain is a striking illustration 
of the mutability of fortune, from which states, no more 
than individuals, are exempted. We read of such changes 
in the destinies of ancient empires, — the decadence of 
Egypt, the fall of Assyria, and Babylon, and Byzantium, 
and Borne ; but their glory and fall were both so far dis- 
tant in the recess of time, that their history seems, to all 
of us who have not travelled and inspected the monuments 
which attest the truth of these events, a sort of romance : 
whereas, in the case of Spain, we realize its greatness, and 
behold its fall ! One reason why we feel so deep an inter- 
est in the fate of the Castilian power, is that the history of 
Spain is so closely interwoven with that of our own country, 
— discovered and colonized as it was under the auspices of 
the Spanish government. We owe our very existence to 
Spain, and from the close of the fifteenth century our his- 
tories have run on in parallel lines. But while America 



192 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

has gone on increasing in the scale of destiny, in grandeur, 
power and wealth, poor Spain has sunk in the scale of des- 
tiny, with a rapidity of decadence no less astonishing than 
the speed of our own progress. The discovery of America, 
as before alluded to, seemed to open to Spain a boundless 
source of wealth and splendid power ; triumphs awaited her 
arms in both North and South America. Cortes in Mexico 
and Pizarro in Peru added vast territory and millions of 
treasure to the national wealth. But we have seen how 
sure is retribution. One by one those ill-gotten possessions 
have escaped the grasp of the mother country ; and now. in 
her old age, poor, and enfeebled, and worn out, she clings, 
with the death-gripe of a plundered and expiring miser, to 
her last earthly possession in the New World. 

Moved in some degree by the same spirit that actuates 
the home government, the Cubans have heretofore viewed 
anything that looked like an attempt at improvement with 
a suspicious eye; they have learned to fear innovation; but 
this trait is yielding, as seen in the introduction of rail- 
roads, telegraphs, and even the lighting of the city of Ha- 
vana by gas, — all done by Americans, who had first to 
contend with great opposition, and to run imminent risks and 
lavish energy and money ; but when these things are once 
in the course of successful experiment, none are more ready 
than the Cubans to approve. This same characteristic, 
a clinging to the past and a fear of advancement, seems to 
have imparted itself to the very scenery of the island, for 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 193 

everything here appears to be of centuries in age, reminding 
one of the idea he has formed of the hallowed East. The 
style of the buildings is not dissimilar to that which is 
found throughout the Orient, and the trees and vegetable 
products increase the resemblance. Particularly in ap- 
proaching Havana from the interior, the view of the city 
resembles almost precisely the Scriptural picture of Jerusa- 
lem. The tall, majestic palms, with their tufted tops, the 
graceful cocoanut tree, and many other peculiarities, give 
to the scenery of Cuba an Eastern aspect, very impressive 
to the stranger. It is impossible to describe to one who 
has not visited the tropics, the bright vividness with which 
each object, artificial or natural, house or tree, stands out 
in the clear liquid light, where there is no haze nor smoke 
to interrupt the view. Indeed, it is impossible to express 
fully how everything differs in Cuba from our own coun- 
try, so near at hand. The language, the people, the cli- 
mate, the manners and customs, the architecture, the foli- 
age, the flowers and general products, all and each afford 
broad contrasts to what the American has ever seen at 
home. But a long cannon-shot, as it were, off our southern 
coast, yet once upon its soil, the visitor seems to have been 
transported into another quarter of the globe, the first im- 
pression being, as we have said, decidedly of an Oriental 
character. But little effort of the imagination would be 
required to believe oneself in distant Syria, or some re- 
mote part of Asia. 
17 



194 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

But let us- recur for one moment to the subject of the 
slaves from which we have unwittingly digressed. On the 
plantations the slaves have some rude musical instruments, 
which they manufacture themselves, and which emit a dull 
monotonous sound, to the cadence of which they sit by moon- 
light and sing or chant, for hours together. One of these 
instruments is a rude drum to the beating of which they 
perform grotesque dances, with unwearying feet, really sur- 
prising the looker-on by their power of endurance in sus- 
taining themselves in vigorous dancing. Generally, or as is 
often the case, a part of Saturday of each week is granted 
to the slaves, when they may frequently be seen engaged at 
ball, playing a curious game after their own fashion. This 
time of holiday many prefer to pass in working upon their 
own allotted piece of ground and in raising favorite vegetables 
and fruits, or corn for the fattening of the pig hard by, and 
for which the drovers, who regularly visit the plantations for 
the purpose, will pay them in good golden doubloons. It is 
thought that the city slave has a less arduous task than 
those in the country, for he is little exposed to the sun, and 
is allowed many privileges, such for instance as attending 
church, and in this the negroes seem to take particular 
delight, especially if well dressed. A few gaudy ribbons, 
and nice glass beads of high color are vastly prized by both 
sexes of the slaves in town and country. In the cities some 
mistresses take pleasure in decking out their immediate 
male and female attendants in fine style with gold ornaments 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 195 

in profusion. There was one beautiful sight the writer par- 
ticularly noticed in the church of Santa Clara, viz : that 
before the altar all distinction was dropped, and the negro 
knelt beside the Don. 

The virgin soil of Cuba is so rich that a touch of the 
hoe prepares it for the plant, or, as Douglass Jerrold says 
of Australia, " just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs 
with a harvest." So fertile a soil is not known to exist in 
any other portion of the globe. It sometimes produces three 
crops to the year, and in ordinary seasons two may be relied 
upon, — the consequence is that the Monteros have little more 
to do than merely to gather the produce they daily carry 
to market, and which also forms so large a portion of their 
own healthful and palatable food. The profusion of its flora 
and the variety of its forests are unsurpassed, while the mul- 
titude of its climbing shrubs gives a luxuriant richness to 
its scenery, which contributes to make it one of the most fas- 
cinating countries in the world. Nowhere are the neces- 
sities of life so easily supplied,- or man so delicately nur- 
tured. 

The richest soil of the island is the black, which is best 
adapted to the purpose of the sugar-planter, and for this 
purpose it is usually chosen. So productive is this descrip- 
tion of land that the extensive sugar plantations, once fairly 
started, will run for years, without the soil being even 
turned, new cane starting up from the old roots, year after 
year, with abundant crops. This is a singular fact to us who 



190 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

are accustomed to see so much of artificial means expended 
upon the soil to enable it to bear even an ordinary crop to 
the husbandman. The red soil is less rich, and is better 
adapted to the planting of coffee, being generally preferred 
for this purpose, while the mulatto-colored earth is considered 
inferior, but still is very productive and is improved by 
the Monteros for planting tobacco, being first prepared with 
a mixture of the other two descriptions of soil which together 
form the richest compost, next to guano, known in agri- 
culture. 

Coal is fortunately found on the island, of a bituminous 
nature ; had this not been the case, the numerous steam 
engines which are now at work on the plantations would 
have soon consumed every vestige of wood on the island, 
though by proper economy the planter can save much by 
burning the refuse cane. The soil is also rich in mineral 
wealth, particularly in copper, iron and loadstone. Gold 
and silver mines have been opened, and in former times were 
worked extensively, but are now entirely abandoned. The 
copper mines near Sagua la Grande in 1841 yielded about 
four millions of dollars, but the exactions of the govern- 
ment were such that they greatly reduced the yield of the 
ore. An export duty of five per cent, was at first imposed 
upon the article : finally the exportation was prohibited al- 
together, unless shipped to old Spain, with a view of com- 
pelling the owners to smelt it in that country. These arbi- 
trary measures soon reduced the profit of the business, and 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 197 

the working of the mines from producing in 1841 four mil- 
lions, to about two by 1845, and finally they were aban- 
doned. 

And now is it to be wondered at that the Creoles should 
groan under the load of oppressions forced upon them as 
depicted in the foregoing pages ? No ! On the contrary 
we feel that they are too forbearing, and look to the ener- 
vating influence of their clime as an excuse for their supine- 
ness under such gross wrongs. Their lovely climate and 
beautiful land are made gloomy by the persecutions of their 
oppressors ; their exuberant soil groans with the burthens 
that are heaped upon it. They are not safe from prying 
inquiry at bed or board, and their every action is observed, 
their slightest words noted. They can sing no song not in 
praise of royalty, and even to hum an air wedded to repub- 
lican verse is to provoke suspicion and perhaps arrest. The 
press is muzzled by the iron hand of power, and speaks only 
in adulation of a distant queen and a corrupt court. Foreign 
soldiers fatten upon the people, eating out their substance, 
and every village near the coast of the island is a garrison, 
every interior town is environed with bayonets ! 

A vast deal has been said about the impregnable harbor 
of Havana, the " Gibraltar of America" being its common 
designation, but modern military science acknowledges no 
place to be impregnable. A thousand chances might hap- 
pen which would give the place to an invading force ; be- 
sides which it has been already twice taken ; and though it 
17* 



198 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

may be said that on these occasions it was not nearly so 
well garrisoned as now, neither so well armed or manned, 
the reply is also ready that it has never been besieged by 
such a force as could now be brought against it, to say no- 
thing of the vast advantage afforded by the modern facilities 
for destruction.* Were not the inaccessible heights of 
Abraham scaled in a night ? and how easily the impreg- 
nable fortress of San Juan de Ulloa fell ! Havana could 
be attacked from the land side and easily taken by a reso- 
lute enemy. With the exception of this one fortress, the 
Moro, and the fort in its rear, the Cabensas, the island is 
very poorly defended, and is accessible to an invading force 
in almost any direction, either on the east, west, or south 
coast. Matanzas, but sixty miles from Havana, could be 
taken by a small force from the land side, and serve as a 
depot from whence to operate, should a systematic effort be 
organized. Cuba's boasted strength is chimerical. 

Steam and the telegraph are revolutionizing all business 
relations and the course of trade. A line of steamers, one 
of the best in the world, runs between New York and Ha- 
vana, also New Orleans and Havana. By this means all 
important intelligence reaches Cuba in advance of any other 
source, and through this country. By the telegraph, Ha- 
vana is brought within three days' communication with New 

* " It is as well secured as it probably could be against an attack from 
the harbor, but could still be assailed with effect in the same way in 
which the French succeeded against Algiers, by landing a sufficient force 
in the rear." — Alexander H. Everett. 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 199 

York and Boston. All important advices must continue to 
reach the island through the United States, and the people 
must still look to this country for political and commercial 
information, and to the movement of our markets for the 
regulation of their own trade and commerce. New Orleans 
has become the great centre to which their interests will 
naturally tend ; and thus we see another strong tie of com- 
mon interest established between the island of Cuba and 
the United States. 

rNaturally belonging to this country by every rule that 
canJbe applied, the writer believes that Cuba will ere long 
be politically ours. As the wise and good rejoice in the 
extension of civilization, refinement, the power of religion 
and high-toned morality, they will look forward hopefully 
to such an event. Once a part of this great confederacy, Cuba 
would immediately catch the national spirit and genius of 
our institutions, and the old Castilian state of dormancy 
would give way to Yankee enterprise, her length and breadth 
would be made to smile like a New England landscape. 
Her sons and daughters would be fully awakened to a true 
sense of their own responsibility, intelligence would be sown 
broadcast, and the wealth of wisdom would shine among the 
cottages of the poor. 

) In the place of the rolling drum and piercing fife, would 
be heard the clink of the hammer and the merry laugh of 
untrammelled spirits. The bayonets that bristle now on 
every hill-side would give place to waving corn, and bright 



200 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

fields of grain. The honest Montero would lay aside his 
Toledo blade and pistol holsters, and the citizen who went 
abroad after sun-set would go unarmed. Modern churches, 
dedicated to pure Christianitj, would raise their lofty spires 
and point towards heaven beside those ancient and time- 
eaten cathedrals. The barrack rooms and guard stations, 
in every street, town or village, would be transformed into 
school-houses, and the trade winds of the tropics would 
sweep over a new Republic f7 



CHAPTER XV. 

Area of Cuba — Extent of cultivated and uncultivated lands — Population 

— Proportion between the sexes — Ratio of legitimate to illegitimate 
births — Ratio between births and deaths — Agricultural statistics — 
Commerce and commercial regulations — Custom house and port 
charges — Exports and imports — Trade with the United States — Uni- 
versities and schools — Education — Charitable institutions' — Railroads 

— Temperature. 

In addition to the statistical information incidentally con- 
tained in the preceding pages, we have prepared the follow- 
ing tables and statements from authentic sources, giving a 
general view of the resources, population, wealth, products 
and commerce, etc., of the island, with other items of inter- 
est and importance. 

Area of Cuba. — Humboldt states the area of the island 
to be 43,380 geographical square miles. Mr. Turnbull 
puts it at 31,468, and, adding the areas of its dependencies, 
namely, the Isle of Pines, Turignano, Romano, Guajaba. 
Coco, Cruz, Paredon Grande, Barril, De Puerto, Euse- 
nachos, Frances, Largo, and other smaller islands, makes 
the total 32.807 square miles. 



202 HISTORY OF CUBA. 




J Years. 


Population. 


4 1775, 


170,370. 


1791, .... 


. 272,140. 


1817, . . . . . 


551,998. 


1827, .... 


. 704,487, viz. : 


Whites, male, . 168,653 Free colored, males, . 51,962 


" female, . . 142,898 " 


females, . . 54,532 


311,051 


106,494 


Slaves, 183,290 males, and 103,652 females,=286,942. 


Total colored, 393,436. Excess of colored over white pop- 


ulation, 82,305. 




Year 1841— 




Whites, .... 


418,291 


Free colored, . 


. 152,838 


Slaves, .... 


436,495 


Total, .... 


1,007,624 


Excess of colored over white, 


. 171,042 


Year 1851— 




Whites, .... 


605,560 


Free colored, . 


. 205,570 


Slaves, .... 


442,000 


Total, .... 


1,253,130 


Year 1854— 


-} 


Total population, . 


1,500,000/ 



Proportions between the sexes. — In 1774 the white 
males formed 58 per cent., and the females 42 per cent., 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 203 

of the population; free colored, males, 52, females, 48; 
male slaves, 65, females, 35. Total, males, 58 per cent., 
females, 42. 

In 1792 the proportion was — 

Whites, males, .... 0.55 

, 0.45 

0.47 

. 0.53 

0.56 

. 0.44 

0.53 

. 0.47 



0.55 
0.45 
0.52 
0.48 
0.62 
0.38 
0.57 
0.53 

0.54 
0.46 
0.48 
0.52 
0.64 



" females, 


Free colored, males, 


" females, 


Slaves, males, 


" females, 


Total, males, . 


" females, . 


In 1817— 


Whites, males, . 


" females, 


Free colored, males, 


" females, 


Slaves, males, 


" females, 


Total, males, . 


" females, 


In 1827— 


Whites, males, . 


" females, 


Free colored, males, 


" females, 


Slaves, males, 



204 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Slaves, females, . . . .0.36 
Total, males, . . . . 0.56 
" females, .... 0.44 
In Paris, the ratio is 54.5 per cent, males, to 45.5 fe- 
males; in England, 50.3 per cent, males, and 49.7 percent, 
females, and in the United States, 51 per cent, males, and 
49 per cent, females. 

The ratio of legitimate to illegitimate births, deduced 
from the observations of five years, is as follows : 
2.1136 to 1 among the whites ; 
0.5058 to 1 among the colored ; 
1.0216 to 1 in the total. 
That is to say, establishing the comparison per centum, 
as in the proportion of the sexes, we have : 

Whites, . . 67.8 per cent, legitimate, and 32.2 per cent, illegitimate. 
Colored, . . 33.7 " " " 66.3 " 

Total, . . . 50.5 " " " 49.5 " 

No capital or people of Europe, Stockholm -alone ex- 
cepted, offers so startling a result, nearly one half the num- 
ber of births being illegitimate. 

Taking the average from the statements of births for five 
years, we find that in every 100 legitimate whites there are 
51.1 males, and 48.9 females; and in an equal number of 
illegitimate, 49 males, and 51 females. Among people of 
color, in 100 legitimate births, 50.6 males, and 49.4 fe- 
males; and in the illegitimate, 47.2 males, and 52.8 fe- 
males. And finally, that, comparing the totals, we obtain 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 



205 



in the legitimate. 51.6 males, and 48.4 females ; and in the 
illegitimate, 47.1 males, and 52.9 females. Consequently 
these observations show that in Cuba, in the illegitimate 
births, the number -of males is much less than that of 
females, and the contrary in the legitimate births. 
Ratio between the Births- and Deaths for five years. 



Births, 

Deaths, 

Difference, . . . , 


1825 


1826 


1827 


1828 


1829 


3,129 

2,698 

431 


3,443 

2,781 
662 


3,491 

3,077 

414 


3,705 
3,320 

385 


3,639 

3,712 

73 



Agriculture. — The total number of acres comprising 
the whole territory is 14,993,024. Of these, in 1830, 
there were used 

In sugar-cane plantations, . . 172,608 
" coffee trees, . . . 184,352 
" tobacco, .... 54,448 
" lesser or garden and fruit culture, 823,424 



Total acres. . . . 1,234,83* 
Leaving over 13,000,000 of acres uncultivated. Some of 
these uncultivated lands are appropriated to grazing, others 
to settlements and towns ; the remainder occupied by moun- 
tains, roads, coasts, rivers and lakes, — the greater part, 
however, wild. 

Total value of lands in 1830, . . $94,396,300 
Value of buildings, utensils, etc., . 55,603,850 
The different products of cultivation were valued as 
follows : 

18 



16 HISTORY OF CUBA. 




Sugar canes in the ground, . 


$6,068,877 


Coffee trees, 


32,500,000 


Fruit trees, vegetables, etc., 


46,940,700 


Tobacco plants, .... 


340,620 


Total value of plants, 


85,850,197 


Total value of wood exported, consumed 


on the island and made into charcoal, 


. $3,818,493 


Minimum value of the forests, 


190,624,000 


Value of 138,982 slaves, at $300 each, 


. 41,694,600 


Total value of live stock, . 


39,617,885 


RECAPITULATION. 




Lands, . 


$94,396,300 


Plants, including timber, . 


276,774,367 


Buildings, engines and utensils, 


54,603,850 


Slaves, 


41,694,600 


Animals, ..... 


39,617,885 


• 


507,087,002 



Representative value of capital invested, 317,264,832 

VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 

Sugar, $8,132,609 

Molasses, 262,932 

Coffee, 4,325,292 

Cocoa, 74,890 

Carried forward, . . . 12,795,723 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 


m 


Brought forward, 


$12,795,723 


Cotton, 


125,000 


Leaf tobacco, ..... 


. 687,240 


Rice, 


454,230 


Beans, peas, onions, etc., 


. 257,260 


Indian corn, .... 


. 4,853,418 


Vegetables and fruits, 


11,475,712 


Grapes, 


. 5,586,616 


Casada, . . . *■-.-.• 


. 146,144 


Charcoal, 


. 2,107,300 


Woods or the products of woods, 


1,?41,195 


Total value of vegetable productions, 


. 40,229,838 


Total value of animal productions, 


9,023,116 




49,252,954 



Total net product of agricultural and rural 

industry, 22,808,622 

Capital invested, $338,917,705, produces, 48,839,928 

COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. 

Import duties. — The rate of duty charged on the im- 
portation of foreign produce and manufactures in foreign 
bottoms is 24^ and 30£ on the tariff valuation of each arti- 
cle, while the same articles in Spanish bottoms, from a for- 
eign port, pay 17s- and 2l£ per cent. 

Export duties. — Foreign flag for any port, 6£ per cent, 
on tariff valuation. 



208 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

Spanish flag for a foreign port, 4£ per cent, on tariff 
valuation. 

Spanish flag for Spanish port, 2£ per cent, on tariff 
valuation ; except leaf tobacco, which pays 12£, 6£ and 2£ 
per cent., according to the flag and destination. 

An additional per centage, under various pretexts, is also 
levied on the total amount of all duties. 

Foreign flour is subject to a duty that is nearly pro- 
hibitory. 

Gold and silver are free of import duty, but pay, the 
former l£ and the latter 2£ per cent., export. 

Every master of a vessel, on entering port, is obliged to 
present two manifests of his cargo and stores, — one to the 
boarding officers, and the other at the time of making entry 
and taking both the oaths, twenty-four hours after his ar- 
rival, with permission of making any necessary corrections 
within the twelve working hours ; and every consignee is 
required to deliver a detailed invoice of each cargo to his, 
her or their consignment, within forty-eight hours after the 
vessel has entered port, and heavy penalties are incurred 
from mere omission or inaccuracy. 

The tonnage duty on foreign vessels is 12 rials, or $1.50, 
per register ton. 

On vessels arriving and departing in ballast or putting 
in in distress no duty is levied. 

Besides the tonnage duty, every foreign square-rigged 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 



209 



vessel entering and loading incurs about 

besides $5.50 for each day occupied in discharging. 

Foreign fore-and-aft vessels pay about $15 less port 

charges. 

The tonnage duties and port charges are very high. 
Foreign vessels pay $8.50 per ton. In the port of Ha- 
vana an additional duty of 21f- cents per ton is levied on 
all vessels for the support of the dredging machine. 

The wharf charges on foreign vessels are $1.50 for each 
100 tons register. 

The light-house duties, officers' fees, etc., vary at the dif- 
ferent ports of the island, but are exorbitantly high in all. 
At Baracoa, for instance, the following is the tariff of 
exactions : 

Tonnage duty, per ton, . 

Anchorage, 

Free pass at the fort, 

Health officer, .... 

Interpreter, .... 

Inspector's fee for sealing hatchway, 

Inspecting vessel's register, 

Clearance, 

The actual expenses of discharging a foreign vessel of 
160* 

Havana, amounted to 
18* 



$1.50 
12.00 
3.00 
8.00 
5.00 
5.00 
8.00 
8.00 



5 tons, which remained a fortnight in the port of 



210 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OP CUBA FOR A SERIES OF SIX- 
TEEN YEARS. 



Years. 


Imports. 


Exports. 


1826 


$14,925,754 


$13,809,838 


1827 


17,352,854 


14,286,192 


1828 


19,534,922 


13,114,362 


1829 


18,695,856 


13,952,405 


1830 


16,171,562 


15,870,968 


1831 


15,548,791 


12,918,711 


1832 


15,198,465 


13,595,017 


1834 


18,511,132 


13,996,100 


1835 


18,563,300 


14,487,955 


1836 


20,722,072 


14,059,246 


1837 


22,551,969 


15,398,245 


1838 


22,940,357 


20,346,407 


1839 


24,729,878 


20,471,102 


1840 


25,217,796 


21,481,848 


1841 


24,700,189 


25,941,783 


1842 


24,637,527 


26,684,701 



During the last year (1842), the imports from the Uni- 
ted States were, 

In Spanish vessels, . ... . $474,262 

In Foreign do., $5,725,959 

Exports to the United States for the same year, 
In Spanish vessels, .... $243,683 

In Foreign do., $5,038,891 

Total imports from the United States, $6,200,219 

" exports to do., $5,282,574 

Total number of arrivals in Spanish ports (1842), 2657 
" clearances from do.. 2727 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 211 

The following table exhibits the exports from the princi- 
pal towns in 1848 : 

North Side of the Island. 

Havana. Matanzas. Cardenas. Sagua la Grande. 
Sugar (boxes) 671,440 318,931 13,900 34,628 

Coffee (arrobas, 251bs. each) 93,797 61,251 1,094 

Molasses (hhds.) 25,886 61,793 60,508 8,327 

Rum (pipes) 10,479 1 

Cigars (thousands) 136,980 62 

Mariel. Gibaro. Remedios. Neuvitas. Baracoa. 
Sugar (boxes) 1,648 5,595 4,293 

Coffee (arrobas) 16,241 114 

Molasses (hhds.) 8,336 16,201 1,880 5,030 

Rum (pipes) 223 

Cigars (boxes, 1000 each) 588 88 2,061 247 

Tobacco (lbs.) 1,867,736 2,267 102,168 

South Side. 

Manzanilla. Trinidad. St. Jago de Cuba. Cienfuegos. Santa Cruz. 
Sugar (boxes) 115 69,656 31,298 59,215 198 

Coffee (arrobas) 3,609 548,432 128 

Molasses (hhds.) 1,475 26,175 857 14,160 997 

Rum (pipes) 60 554 379 181 

Tobacco (lbs.) 315,570 1,208,536 5,000 2,669 

Cigars (thousands) 542 399 4,575 41 155 

Copper ore (lbs.) 571,826 

Universities, Schools, etc. — Besides the Royal Univer- 
sity at Havana, there are several other learned institutes, 
such as the Royal Seminary of San Carlos y San Ambro- 
sio, founded in 1773 ; a seminary for girls, founded in 
1691 ; a free school for sculpture and painting, which dates 



212 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

from 1818; a free mercantile school, and some private 
seminaries, to which we have before referred. The Royal 
Economical Society of Havana, formerly called the Patri- 
otic Society, was established in 1793, and is divided into 
three principal sections, on education, agriculture, com- 
merce and popular industry ; a department of history has 
been added. Several eminent and talented men have given 
eclat to this institution. 

The Medical School was organized in 1842. 

The means of general education are very narrow and 
inadequate. No report on the state of education in the 
island has been published since 1836. At that time, there 
were two hundred and ten schools for white, and thirty-one 
for colored children. In 1842, the public funds for educa- 
tional purposes were reduced from thirty-two thousand to 
eight thousand dollars. Nueva Filipina. in a rich tobacco- 
growing district, with a population of thirty thousand .souls, 
had but one school for forty pupils, a few years since. 

Charitable Institutions, Hospitals, etc. — There are 
several charitable institutions in Havana, with ample funds 
and well managed. Such are the Casa Real de Benefi- 
cencia, the Hospital of San Lazaro and the Foundling Hos- 
pital, — Casa Real de Maternidad. In other parts of the 
island, there are eighteen hospitals, located in its chief 
towns. 

Rail-roads. — The first railroad built in Cuba was that 
from Havana to Guines, forty-five miles in length, com- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 213 

pleted and opened in 1839. In 1848, there were two hun- 
dred and eighty-five miles of railroads on the island, and 
the capital invested in them has been computed at between 
five and six millions of dollars. 

Climate. — The diversity of surface gives rise to con- 
siderable variation in temperature. On the highest moun- 
tain ridges, at four thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
ice is sometimes formed in mid winter, but snow is unknown. 

The mean temperature of the hottest months (July and 
August) is about 83° Fahrenheit. The coldest months are 
January and December. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Retrospective thoughts — The bright side and dark side of the picture — 
Cuban institutions contrasted with our own — Political sentiments of 
the Creoles — War footing — Loyalty of the colony — Native men ot 
genius — The Cubans not willing slaves — Our own revolution — Apos- 
tles of rebellion — Moral of the Lopez expedition — Jealousy of, Spain 
— Honorable position of our government — Spanish aggressions on our 
flag — Purchase of the island — Distinguished conservative opinion — 
The end. 

It is with infinite reluctance that the temporary sojourner 
in Cuba leaves her delicious shores, and takes his farewell 
look at their enchanting features. A brief residence in the 
island passes like a midsummer night's dream, and it 
requires a strenuous effort of the mind to arrive at the con- 
viction that the memories one brings away with him are not 
delusive sports of the imagination. Smiling skies and smil- 
ing waters, groves of palm and orange, the bloom of the 
heliotrope, the jessamine, and the rose, flights of strange 
and gaudy birds, tropic nights at once luxurious and calm, 
clouds of fire-flies floating like unsphered stars on the night 
breeze, graceful figures of dark-eyed senoritas in diapha- 
nous drapery, picturesque groups of Monteros, relieved by the 
dusky faces and stalwart forms of the sons of Africa, undu- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 215 

lating volantes, military pageants, ecclesiastical processions, 
frowning fortresses, grim batteries, white sails, fountains 
raining silver, — all these images mingle together in brilliant 
and kaleidoscopic combinations, changing and varying as 
the mind's eye seeks to fix their features. Long after his 
departure from the enchanting island the traveller beholds 
these visions in the still watches of the night, and again he 
listens to the dash of the sea-green waves at the foot of the 
Moro and the Punta, the roll of the drum and the crash of 
arms upon the ramparts, and the thrilling strains of music 
from the military band in the Plaza de Armas. The vexa- 
tions incident to all travel, and meted out in no stinted 
measure to the visitor at Cuba, are amply repaid by the 
spectacles it presents. 

" It is a goodly sight to see 

What Heaven hath done for this delicious land ! 
What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree ! 
What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand ! " 

If it were possible to contemplate only the beauties that 
nature has so prodigally lavished on this Eden of the Gulf, 
shutting out all that man has done and is still doing to mar 
the blessings of Heaven, then a visit to or residence in Cuba 
would present a succession of unalloyed pleasures equal to a 
poet's dream. But it is impossible, even if it would be desira- 
ble, to exclude the dark side of the picture. The American 
traveller, particularly, keenly alive to the social and political 
aspects of life, appreciates in full force the evils that chal- 



\\ 



216 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

lenge his observation at every step, and in every view which 
he may take. If he contrast the natural scenery with the fa- 
miliar pictures of home, he cannot help also contrasting the 
political condition of the people with that of his own country. 
The existence, almost under the shadow of the flag of the 
freest institutions the earth ever knew, of a government as 
purely despotic as that of the autocrat of all the Kussias, 
is a monstrous fact that startles the most indifferent ob- 
server. It must be seen to be realized. To go hence to 
Cuba is not merely passing over a few degrees of latitude in 
a few days' sail, — it is a step from the nineteenth century 
back into the dark ages. In the clime of sun and endless 
summer, we are in the land of starless political darkness. 
Lying under the lee of a land where every man is a sov- 
ereign, is a realm where the lives, liberties, and fortunes of 
all are held at the tenure of the will of a single individual, 
and whence not a single murmur of complaint can reach the 
ear of the nominal ruler more than a thousand leagues away 
in another hemisphere. In close proximity to a country 
where the taxes, self-imposed, are so light as to be almost 
unfelt. is one where each free family pays nearly four hun- 
dred dollars per annum for the support of a system of big- 
oted tyranny, yielding in the aggregate an annual revenue 
of twenty-five millions of dollars for which they receive no 
equivalent, — no representation, no utterance, for pen and 
tongue are alike proscribed, — no honor, no office, no emolu- 
ment; while their industry is crippled, their intercourse 



HISTORY OE CUBA. 217 

with other nations hampered in every way, their bread lit- 
erally snatched from their lips, the freedom of education 
denied, and every generous, liberal aspiration of the human 
soul stifled in its birth. And this in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, and in North America. 

Such are the contrasts, broad and striking, and such the 
reflections forced upon the mind of the citizen of the United 
States in Cuba. Do they never occur to the minds of the 
Creoles 1 "We are told that they are willing slaves. Spain 
tells us so, and she extols to the world with complacent 
mendacity the loyalty of her ' ' siempre fielissima isla de 
Cuba." But why does she have a soldier under arms for 
every four white adults 1 We were about to say, white 
male citizens, but there are no citizens in Cuba. A pro- 
portionate military force in this country would give us a 
standing army of more than a million bayonets, with an 
annual expenditure, reckoning each soldier to cost only two 
hundred dollars per annum, of more than two hundred mil- 
lions of dollars. And this is the peace establishment of 
Spain in Cuba — for England and France and the United 
States are all her allies, and she has no longer to fear the 
roving buccaneers of the Gulf who once made her trem- 
ble in her island fastness. For whom then is this enormous 
warlike preparation? Certainly for no external enemy, — 
there is none. The question answers itself, — it is for her 
very loyal subjects, the people of Cuba, that the queen of 
Spain makes all this warlike show. W 
19 



218 HISTOKY OF CUBA. 

It is impossible to conceive of any degree of loyalty that 
would be proof against the unpaialleled burthens and atro- 
cious system by which the mother country has ever loaded 
and weighed down her western colonists. They must be 
either more or less than men if they still cherish attach- 
ment to a foreign throne under such circumstances. But the 
fact simply is, the Creoles of Cuba are neither angels nor 
brutes ; they are, it is true, a long-suffering and somewhat in- 
dolent people, lacking in a great degree the stern qualities of 
the Anglo-Saxon and the Anglo-Norman races, but never- 
theless intelligent, if wanting culture, and not without those 
noble aspirations for independence and freedom, destitute of 
which they would cease to be men, justly forfeiting all 
claim to our sympathy and consideration. During the brief 
intervals in which a liberal spirit was manifested towards , 
the colony by the home government, the Cubans gave proof 

of talent and energy, which, had they been permitted to 

I 
attain their full development, would have given them a 

highly honorable name and distinguished character. When 

the field for genius was comparatively clear, Cuba produced 

more than one statesman and man of science, who would 

have done honor to a more favored land. 

But these cheering rays of light were soon extinguished, 

and the fluctuating policy of Spain settled down into the 

rayless and brutal despotism which has become its normal 

condition, and a double darkness closed upon the political 

and intellectual prospects of Cuba. But the people are not. 



HISTORY OP CUBA. 219 

and have not been the supine and idle victims of tyranny 
which Spain depicts them. The reader, who has indul- 
gently followed us thus far, will remember the several times 
they have attempted, manacled as they are, to free their 
limbs from the chains that bind them. /It is insulting and 
idle to say that they might have been free if they had earn- \ 
estly desired and made the effort for freedom. Who can say 
what would have been the result of our own struggle for 
independence, if Great Britain, at the outset, had been as 
well prepared for resistance as Spain has always been in 
Cuba ? Who can say how long and painful would have 
been the struggle, if one of the most powerful military 
nations of Europe had not listened to our despairing appeal, 
and thrown the weight of her gold and her arms into the_# 
scale against our great enemy ? When we see how — as 
we do clearly — in a single night the well- contrived schemes 
of an adroit and unprincipled knave enslaved a brilliant and 
war-like people, like the French, who had more than once 
tasted the fruits of republican glory and liberty, who had 
borne their free flag in triumph over more than half of 
Europe, we can understand why the Cubans, overawed from 
the very outset, by the presence of a force vastly greater in 
proportion than that which enslaved France, have been 
unable to achieve their deliverance. Nay, more — when we 
consider the system pursued by the government of the 
island, the impossibility of forming assemblages, and of con- 
certing action, the presence of troops and spies everywhere, 



220 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

the compulsory silence of the press — the violation of the 
sanctity of correspondence, the presence of a slave popula- 
tion, we can only wonder that any effort has been made, 
any step taken in that fatal pathway of revolution which 
leads infallibly to the garrote. f 

^ If Cuba lies at present under the armed heel of despot- 
ism we may be sure that the anguish of her sons is keenly 
aggravated by their perfect understanding of our own lib- 
eral institutions, and an earnest, if fruitless desire to parti- 
cipate in their enjoyment. It is beyond the power of the 
Spanish government to keep the people of the island in a 
state of complete darkness, as it seems to desire to do. 
The young men of Cuba educated at our colleges and 

v schools, the visitors from the United States, and American 
merchants established on the island, are all so many apostles 
of republicanism, and propagandists of treason and rebel- 
lion. Nor can the captains-general with all their vigi- 
lance, exclude what they are pleased to call incendiary 
newspapers and documents from pretty extensive circulation 
among the i: ever faithful." That liberal ideas and hatred 
of Spanish despotism are widely entertained among the 
Cubans is a fact no one who has jlassed a brief period among 
them can truthfully deny. The writer of these pages avers, 
from hid personal knowledge, that they await only the 
means and the opportunity to rise in rebellion against Spain. 
We are too far distant to see more than the light smoke/ 
but those who have trodden the soil of Cuba have sounded 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 221 

// 

the depths of the volcano. The history of the unfortunate 
Lopez expedition proves nothing contrary to this. The 
force under Lopez afforded too weak a nucleus, was too 
hastily thrown upon the island, too ill prepared, and too 
untimely attacked, to enable the native patriots to rally 
round its standard, and thus to second the efforts of the 
invaders. With no ammunition nor arms to spare, recruits 
would have only added to the embarrassment of the adven- 
turers. Yet had Lopez been joined by the brave but unfor- 
tunate Crittenden, with what arms and ammunition he pos- 
sessed, had he gained some fastness where he could have 
been disciplining his command, until further aid arrived, the 
adventure might have had a very different termination from ' 
what we have recorded in an early chapter of this book. u 

Disastrous as was the result of the Lopez expedition, it 
nevertheless proved two important facts : first, the bravery of 
the Cubans, a small company of whom drove the enemy at 
the point of the bayonet ; and, secondly, the inefficiency of 
Spanish troops when opposed by resolute men. If a large 
force of picked Spanish troops were decimated and routed 
in two actions, by a handful of ill-armed and undisciplined 
men, taken by surprise, we «,re justified in believing that if 
an effective force of ten thousand men, comprising the sev- 
eral arms, of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, had been 
thrown into the island, they would have carried all before 
them. With such a body of men to rally upon, the Cubans 
would have risen in the departments of the island, and her 
19* 



222 BflStORY OF CUBA. 

best transatlantic jewel would have been torn from the dia- 
dem of Spain. 

That the Spanish government lives in constant dread of a 
renewal of the efforts on the part of Americans and exiled 
Cubans to aid the disaffected people of the island in throw- 
ing off its odious yoke, is a notorious fact, and there are 
evidences in the conduct of its officials towards those of this 
government that it regards the latter as secretly favoring 
such illegal action. Yet the steps taken by our government to 
crush any such attempts have been decided enough to satisfy 
any but a jealous and unreasonable power. President Fill- 
more, in his memorable proclamation, said, " Such expedi- 
tions can only be regarded as adventures for plunder and 
robbery," and declaring Americans who engaged in them 
outlaws, informed them that " they would forfeit their claim 
to the protection of this government, or any interference in 
their behalf, no matter to what extremity they might be 
reduced in consequence of their illegal conduct. 1 ' In ac- 
cordance with this declaration, the brave Crittenden and his 
men were allowed to be shot at Atares, though they were 
not taken with arms in their hands, had abandoned the ex- 
pedition, and were seeking to escape from the island. 

In a similar spirit the present chief magistrate alluded 
to our relations with Spain in his inaugural address, in 
the following explicit terms : — 

' f Indeed it is not to be disguised that our attitude as a 
nation, and our position on the globe, render the acquisition 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 223 

of certain possessions, not within our jurisdiction, eminently 
important, if not, in the future, essential for the preserva- 
tion of the rights of commerce and the peace of the world. 
Should they be obtained, it will be through no grasping 
spirit, but with a view to obvious national interest and se- 
curity, and in a manner entirely consistent with the strictest 
observance of national faith." 

A recent proclamation, emanating from the same source, 
and warning our citizens of the consequences of engaging 
in an invasion of the island, also attests the determination 
to maintain the integrity of our relations with an allied 
power. 

No candid student of the history of our relations with 
Spain can fail to be impressed by the frank and honorable 
attitude of our government, or to contrast its acts with 
those of the Spanish officials of Cuba. A history of the 
commercial intercourse of our citizens with the island would 
be a history of petty and also serious annoyances and griev- 
ances to which they have been subjected for a series of years 
by the Spanish officials, increasing in magnitude as the latter 
have witnessed the forbearance and magnanimity of our gov- 
ernment. Not an American merchant or captain, who has had 
dealings with Cuba, but could furnish his list of insults and 
outrages, some in the shape of illegal extortions and delays, 
others merely gratuitous ebullitions of spite and malice dic- 
tated by a hatred of our country and its citizens. Of late 
instances of outrage so flagrant have occurred, that the exec- 



224 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

utive has felt bound to call the attention of Congress to 
them in a message, in which he points out the great evil 
which lies at the bottom, and also the remedy. 

" The offending party," he says, "is at our doors with 
large power for aggression, but none, it is alleged, for repara- 
tion. The source of redress is in another hemisphere ; and 
the answers to our just complaints, made to the home govern- 
ment, are but the repetition of excuses rendered by inferior 
officials to the superiors, in reply to the representations of 
misconduct. In giving extraordinary power to them, she 
owes it to justice, and to her friendly relations to this govern- 
ment, to guard with great vigilance against the exorbitant 
exercise of these powers, and in case of injuries to provide 
for prompt redress." 

It is very clear that if, in such cases as the seizure of a 
vessel and her cargo by the port officers at Havana, for an 
alleged violation of revenue laws, or even port usages, re- 
dress, in case of official misconduct, can only be had by 
reference to the home government in another part of the 
world, our trade with Cuba will be completely paralyzed. 
The delay and difficulty in obtaining such redress has already, 
in too many cases, prompted extortion on the one h.and, and 
acquiescence to injustice on the other. The experience of 
the last four years alone will fully sustain the truth of this 
assertion. 

In 1851 two American vessels were seized off Yucatan 
by the Spanish authorities on suspicion of being engaged in 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 225 

the Lopez expedition ; in the same year the steamship Fal- 
con was ■wantonly fired upon by a Spanish government ves- 
sel ; in 1852 the American mail bags were forcibly opened 
and their contents examined by order of the captain-general ; 
and less than two years ago, as is well known, the Crescent 
City was not allowed to land her passengers and mails, sim- 
ply because the purser, Smith, was obnoxious to the govern- 
ment of the island. The Black Warrior, fired into on one 
voyage, was seized lately for a violation of a custom house 
form — an affair not yet, it is believed, settled with the 
Spanish government. More than once, on specious pretexts, ' 
have American sailors been taken from American vessels 
and thrown into Spanish prisons. In short, the insults of- 
fered by Spanish officials to our flag have so multiplied of 
late that the popular indignation in the country has reached 
an alarming height. 

It is difficult for a republic and a despotism, situated like 
the United States and Cuba, to live on neighborly terms ; 
and to control the indignation of the citizens of the former, 
proud and high spirited, conscious of giving no offence, and 
yet subjected to repeated insults, is a task almost too great 
for the most adroit and pacific administration. When we 
add to this feeling among our people a consciousness that 
Cuba, the source of all this trouble, is in unwilling vassal- 
age to Spain, and longing for annexation to the United States, 
that under our flag the prosperity of her people would be 
secured, a vast addition made to our commercial resources, 



226 HISTORY OP CUBA. 

an invaluable safeguard given to our southern frontier, and 
the key to the Mississippi and the great west made secure 
forever, we can no longer wonder at the spread of the con- 
viction that Cuba should belong to this country, and this 
too as soon as can be honorably brought about. Had she 
possessed more foresight and less pride, Spain would have 
long since sold the island to the United States, and thereby 
have relieved herself of a weighty care and a most danger- 
ous property. 

" So far from being really injured by the loss of the isl- 
and," says Hon. Edward Everett, in his able and well 
known letter to the British minister rejecting the proposi- 
tion for the tripartite convention, " there is no doubt that, 
were it peacefully transferred to the United States, a pros- 
perous commerce between Cuba and Spain, resulting from 
ancient associations and common language and tastes, would 
be far more productive than the best contrived system of 
colonial taxation. Such, notoriously, has been the result to 
Great Britain of the establishment of the independence of 
the United States." 

If it be true that the American minister at Madrid has 
been authorized to offer a price nothing short of a royal 
ransom for the island, we cannot conceive that the greedy 
queen, and even the Cortes of Spain, would reject it, unless 
secretly influenced by the powers which had the effrontery to 
propose for our acceptance the tripartite treaty, by which we 
were expected to renounce forever all pretension to the posses- 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 227 

sion of Cuba. It is difficult to believe that France and Eng- 
land could for a moment seriously suppose that such a ridicu- 
lous proposition would be for one moment entertained by this 
government, and yet they must so have deceived themselves, 
or otherwise they would not have made the proposition as 
they did. 

Of the importance, not to say necessity, of the possession 
of Cuba by the United States, statesmen of all parties are 
agreed ; and they are by no means in advance of the popu- 
lar sentiment; indeed, the class who urge its immediate 
acquisition, at any cost, by any means, not as a source of 
wealth, but as a political necessity, is by no means incon- 
siderable. It would be foreign to our purpose to quote the 
opinions of any ultraists, nor do we design, in these closing 
remarks, to enter the field of politics, or political discussion. 
We have endeavored to state facts only, and to state them 
plainly, deducing the most incontrovertible conclusions. 

We find the following remarks in a recent conservative 
speech of Mr. Latham, a member of Congress, from Cali- 
fornia. They present, with emphasis, some of the points 
we have lightly touched upon : 

" I admit that our relations with Spain, growing out of 
that island (Cuba), are of an extremely delicate nature ; 
that the fate of that island, its misgovernment, its proximity 
to our shores, and the particular institutions established 
upon it, are of vast importance to the peace and security of 
this country ; and that the utmost vigilance in regard to it 



228 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

is not only demanded by prudence, but an act of imperative 
duty on the part of our government. The island of Cuba 
commands, in a measure, the Gulf of Mexico. In case of 
a maritime war, in which the United States may be engaged, 
its possession by the enemy might become a source of infi- 
nite annoyance to us, crippling our shipping, threatening 
the great emporium of our southern commerce, and expos- 
ing our whole southern coast, from the capes of Florida to 
the mouth of the Rio Grande, to the enemy's cruisers. The 
geographical position of Cuba is such that we cannot, with- 
out a total disregard to our own safety, permit it to pass 
into the hands of any first-class power ; nay, that it would 
be extremely imprudent to allow it to pass even into the 
hands of a power of the second rank, possessed of energy 
and capacity for expansion." 

If Cuba come into our possession peaceably, as the fruits 
of a fair bargain, or as a free-will offering of her sons, after 
a successful revolution, we can predict for her a future as 
bright as her past has been desolate and gloomy ; for the 
union of a territory with a foreign population to our con- 
federacy is no new and doubtful experiment. Louisiana, 
with her French and Spanish Creoles, is one of the most 
reliable states of the Union ; and, not long after her admis- 
sion, she signed, with her best blood, the pledge of fealty to 
the common country. 

More recently, we all remember how, when Taylor, in 
the presence of the foe upon the Rio Grande, called for 



HISTORY OF CUBA. 229 

volunteers, the gallant Creoles rushed to arms, and crowded 
to his banner. The Creoles of Cuba are of the same blood 
and lineage, — Spaniards in chivalry of soul, without the 
ferocity and fanaticism of the descendants of the Cid. We 
are sure, from what they have shown in the past, that 
liberal institutions will develop latent qualities which need 
only free air for their expansion. They will not want com- 
panions, friends and helpers. A tide of emigration from 
the States will pour into the island, the waste lands will be 
reclaimed, and their hidden wealth disclosed ; a new system 
of agricultural economy will be introduced ; the woods of 
the island will furnish material for splendid ships ; towns 
and villages will rise with magical celerity, and the whole 
surface of the " garden of the world " will blossom like the 
rose. 

" Rich in soil, salubrious in climate, varied in produc- 
tions, the home of commerce," says the Hon. 0. R. Single- 
ton, of Mississippi, " Cuba seems to have been formed to 
become ' the very button on Fortune's cap.' Washed by 
the Gulf-stream on half her borders, with the Mississippi 
pouring out its rich treasures on one side, and the Amazon, 
destined to become a ' cornucopia,' on the other,-* with the 
ports of Havana and Matanzas on the north, and the Isle of 
Pines and St. Jago de Cuba on the south, Nature has writ- 
ten upon her, in legible characters, a destiny far above that 
of a subjugated province of a rotten European dynasty. 
Her home is in the bosom of the North American confed- 
20 



230 HISTORY OF CUBA. 

eracy. Like a lost Pleiad, she may wander on for a few 
months or years in lawless, chaotic confusion ; but. ulti- 
mately, the laws of nature and of nations will vindicate 
themselves, and she will assume her true social and politi- 
cal condition, despite the diplomacy of statesmen, the trick- 
ery of knaves, or the frowns of tyrants. Cuba will be free. 
The spirit is abroad among her people ; and, although they 
dare not give utterance to their thoughts, lest some treach- 
erous breeze should bear them to a tyrant's ears, still they 
think and feel, and will act when the proper time shall 
arrive. The few who have dared ' to do or die ' have fallen, 
and their blood still marks the spot where they fell. Such 
has been the case in all great revolutionary struggles. 
Those who lead the van must expect a sharp encounter 
before they break through the serried hosts of tyranny, and 
many a good man falls upon the threshold of the temple. 

" • But freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, is always won.' " 



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